The Presidency on Tuesday denied giving its approval for the sharing of the balance in the Excess Crude Account.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, had while speaking to State House correspondents on Monday, said that the balance on the account has been approved for sharing between the three tiers of government.
But a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, countered Mr. Idris’s position, making some clarifications to that effect.
The statement reads: “Reports in sections of the media today that funds will be drawn from the Excess Crude Account for the relief package approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for states and local governments, are incorrect.
“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 as follows:
- The sharing of the $2.1billion dividend paid to the Federation Account by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG);
- A Central Bank-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging from N250billion to N300billion. This will be a soft loan available to states for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries; and
- A debt relief program designed by the Debt Management Office which will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660billion and extend the life span of such loans while reducing their debt-servicing expenditures.
“The measures approved by President 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 have wrongly reported”.