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FG disburses N43bn to 24 states after passing performance-based assessment
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said Wednesday the Federal Government had disbursed the sum of N43,416,000,000.00 ($120.6 million) to 24 states of the federation.
Ahmed, who disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja by the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Hassan Dodo, said the funds were disbursed as performance-based grants under the World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results.
SFTAS is wholly-financed with a loan of $750 million from the International Development Association (IDA), a member of the World Bank Group.
According to the minister, the eligible states were selected on the basis of the results achieved in 2018 under the performance assessment.
She added that the disbursement followed the participation of the 24 eligible states in the recent Annual Performance Assessment (APA) carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) as the Independent Verification Agent (IVA) in collaboration with a third-party firm, JK Consulting Limited and the SFTAS Programme Coordination Unit (PCU).
Ahmed said: “The SFTAS Programme was established by the federal government with the concessional World Bank loan to support states to enhance their capacity to achieve the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) which are the Programme results.
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“The DLIs are derived from the country’s 22-Point Fiscal Sustainability Plan and the 14 Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments aimed at strengthening fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability across all States of the Federation.”
“The World Bank-assisted SFTAS Programme was principally to strengthen fiscal management at the state level, so as to ensure effective mobilization and utilization of financial resources, to the benefit of their citizens in a transparent, accountable and sustainable manner.”
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