The Federal government has disbursed ₦123.348 billion ($324.6million) to states under its States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed disclosed this in a statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Mr Hassan Dodo and obtained by ASHENEWS on Wednesday.
The disbursement, the minister said, followed the achievement of results by the states in the just concluded 2019 Annual Performance Assessment (APA).
“The disbursement included N91.048 billion ($239.6 million) of performance-based grants for the 2019 APA results achieved by 32 Eligible States across various Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) covering fiscal transparency, accountability, expenditure efficiency, revenue mobilization and debt sustainability.
“States received grants in line with the number of results achieved, with Sokoto state receiving the highest amount of N6.612 billion while Kano state got the lowest amount of N1.710 billion.
“Bayelsa, Imo, Rivers and Zamfara states got zero allocation due to their inability to meet the 2019 eligibility criteria which required states to publish online approved annual budgets and audited financial statements within a specific timeframe,” the statement reads.
According to the statement, the 2019 APA results demonstrated substantive progress that States have made on fiscal reforms, with improvements over the 2018 APA results where the total performance-based grants of N43.416 billion ($120.6 million) were received by 24 Eligible States.
“The second part of the disbursement involved a new COVID-19 response DLI: The implementation of a tax compliance relief programme for individual taxpayers and businesses by States by 30 September 2020 where 34 out of 36 States (only Anambra and Zamfara States missed out) were able to achieve the results for this new DLI for the total of N32.3 billion ($85 million) of grants,” it further said.
The Minister added that since the first disbursement in April 2020, the Federal government has so far disbursed the total sum of N233 billion ($620.6million) to the States under the $750 million World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results.
“The World Bank-assisted SFTAS Programme is principally meant to strengthen fiscal management at the state level so as to ensure effective mobilisation and utilisation of financial resources to the benefit of their citizens in a transparent, accountable and sustainable manner, thereby reducing fiscal risks and encouraging a common set of fiscally responsible behaviours.”
