BEVERLY HILLS, June 10, (THEWILL) – A breakdown of the first tranche of Paris Club refunds paid to states by the federal government has shown that the 36 states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have so far collected a total of N516.38 billion.
The payments were made, upon the November 21 2016 approval by President Muhammadu Buhari, in partial settlement of longstanding claims by state governments regarding over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, allocation for external debt service arising between 1995 and 2002.
The debt service deductions are in respect of the Paris Club, London Club and Multilateral debts of the Federal and State governments. While Nigeria reached a final agreement for debt relief with the Paris Club in October 2005, some states had already been overcharged.
Before now, the federal government had turned down repeated requests for the payment details to be made public, but it finally yielded to the demands in a statement issued on Friday by the director of information in the Ministry of Finance, Salisu Danbatta.
Disclosing that the releases were said to be conditional upon a minimum of 50 per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions, the Federal Ministry of Finance said it was reviewing the impact of these releases on the level of arrears owed by State Governments.
“The funds were released to state governments as part of the wider efforts to stimulate the economy and were specifically designed to support states in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers,” the statement read.
Danbatta added that a detailed report is being compiled for presentation to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, as part of the process for approval for the release of any subsequent tranches.
Entitled: ‘Refund of overdeductions on Paris Club Loans on the Accounts of State and Local Governments (1995-2002), the statement contains the following information…
| S/N | STATES | TOTAL AMOUNT PAID IN NAIRA |
| 1 | ABIA | 11,431,531,742.97 |
| 2 | ADAMAWA | 10,257,434,321.63 |
| 3 | AKWA IBOM | 25,981,255,165.12 |
| 4 | ANAMBRA | 12,243,313,404.68 |
| 5 | BAUCHI | 13,755,553,122.51 |
| 6 | BAYELSA | 24,895,696,347.55 |
| 7 | BENUE | 13,709,343,498.51 |
| 8 | BORNO | 14,681,869,730.63 |
| 9 | CROSS RIVER | 12,150,687,893.85 |
| 10 | DELTA | 27,606,963,362.46 |
| 11 | EBONYI | 9,016,166,759.96 |
| 12 | EDO | 12,182,253,184.99 |
| 13 | EKITI | 9,545,673,294.17 |
| 14 | ENUGU | 10,723,578,819.32 |
| 15 | GOMBE | 8,945,755,396.38 |
| 16 | IMO | 14,001,610,365.94 |
| 17 | JIGAWA | 14,215,333,413.52 |
| 18 | KADUNA | 15,443,458,455.10 |
| 19 | KANO | 21,740,390,362.48 |
| 20 | KATSINA | 16,404,261,819.71 |
| 21 | KEBBI | 11,954,998,982.90 |
| 22 | KOGI | 12,055,455,191.60 |
| 23 | KWARA | 10,241,288,653.14 |
| 24 | LAGOS | 16,743,876,266.21 |
| 25 | NASARAWA | 9,102,098,342.24 |
| 26 | NIGER | 14,421,586,309.89 |
| 27 | OGUN | 11,478,749,388.92 |
| 28 | ONDO | 14,007,296,628.57 |
| 29 | OSUN | 12,628,212,681.25 |
| 30 | OYO | 13,315,423,054.25 |
| 31 | PLATEAU | 11,288,158,110.82 |
| 32 | RIVERS | 34,925,785,322.06 |
| 33 | SOKOTO | 12,882,257,093.52 |
| 34 | TARABA | 9,326,607,975.00 |
| 35 | YOBE | 10,826,206,233.18 |
| 36 | ZAMFARA | 10,884,771,188.99 |
| 37 | FCT | 1,369,735,000.09 |
| TOTAL | 516,384,636,883.81 |
