Breaking:Buhari’s government to recover N614bn budget support given to 35 Nigerian states

The government of President Muhammadu Buhari wants states to return the N614 billion earlier given to them – Zainab Ahmed, finance minister, says a committee for the recovering of the funds has been set up – Ahmed discloses that the committee is made up of governors and officials from the finance ministry and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

The federal government has begun moves to recover the total sum of N614 billion it earlier gave to 35 states on what has been described as budget support. To this end, the government has set up a committee for the purpose of recovering the fund. The setting up of the committee comes about 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated his cabinet.

The minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, made the announcement when he briefed State House correspondents at the end of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The Nation reports that the minister had presented an update to the council concerning the budget support facility which she said 35 states benefited from. According to her, each of the affected states would have to pay back an equivalent of N175 billion. “Council agreed to constitute a committee of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), ministry of finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to finalize modalities for repayment,” she said.

Legit.ng earlier reported how the civil servants in Kogi state recently celebrated following the reported payment of all outstanding salary arrears by Governor Yahaya Bello.

It was learnt that the workers disclosed that they had received the entire five months salaries owed by the Kogi state government and expressed joy over the development.