BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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Femi Adesina, spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, explains that the presidential relief package for States is the dividend from Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, and not from the Excess Crude Account
THE presidency today dismissed as incorrect reports in sections of the media that funds will be drawn from the Excess Crude Account for the relief package approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for states and local governments.
A statement signed by the Femi Adesina, senior adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, today and made available to Realnews, said: “For the purpose of greater clarity on the matter, the measures approved by President Buhari to deal with the problem of unpaid public sector salaries in many states are the sharing of the $2.1 billion dividend paid to the Federation Account by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company, NLNG.”
The money will also come from “the Central Bank-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging from N250 Billion to N300 Billion. This will be a soft loan available to states for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries; and a debt relief programme designed by the Debt Management Office which will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660 billion, and extend the life span of such loans while reducing their debt-servicing expenditures.”
Adesina said the measures approved by Buhari definitely do not include drawing down the remaining balance in the Excess Crude Account or the “liquidation” of the account as some media outlets wrongly reported. “No such decision has been taken or approved by President Buhari, and last week’s meeting of the National Economic Council clearly concluded that the Excess Crude Account should be left untouched at this time,” he said.
— July 7, 2015 @5.00 GMT
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