The Federal Government has received $338.98m from the World Bank in 2022, which it plans to release to states soon, The PUNCH has learnt.
The funds were released under the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability project, which was initiated in 2018.
The SFTAS project was designed to strengthen transparency and accountability at the sub-national level, and will end this year.
A total of $1.5bn was committed to the project in two batches of $750m (December 2018 and December 2020) by the World Bank.
Although the money is a grant to state governments, it is a loan to the Federal Government.
A check by The PUNCH on the website of the World Bank showed that four disbursements were made to the Federal Government in 2022.
The first disbursement was made in April 2022, with the release of $700,036.87, while the second was $330.99m in June.
The third disbursement was in October with the release of $6.83m, while the last disbursement was $450,419 in November this year.
Recently, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that states had received N471.9bn of the $1.5bn World Bank-assisted SFTAS Programme for Results.
On Monday, during a special dinner by the Programmes Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the World Bank with state governors to celebrate SFTAS achievement, the finance minister said that the last tranche of the funds would be released to states “in a few weeks.”
She said, “I am pleased to inform you that in the next few weeks, your states will receive the last tranche of performance-based grants, including the sum of N1bn withheld by the Central Bank through naira exchange deficit thus bringing to a close, the Performance for Results Grant even though the technical assistance component will continue to be delivered by implementing agencies and partners till June 2023 when the programme will finally wind down.”
During the dinner, awards were presented to different states for different achievement levels.
Punch
