The federal government of Nigeria has disbursed N43,416,000,000.00 (USD120.6 million) as performance-based grants to 24 eligible states on the basis of results achieved in 2018 under the performance-based grant component of the World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed through a statement signed by the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mr Hassan Dodo on Wednesday.
She explained that the disbursement followed the participation of the eligible states in the recent Annual Performance Assessment (APA) carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF) as the Independent Verification Agent (IVA) in collaboration with a third-party firm, JK Consulting Limited and the SFTAS Programme Coordination Unit (PCU).
The beneficiary states of the program, which was wholly-financed with a $750 million loan from the International Development Association (IDA), a member of the World Bank Group, are Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe States.
Kaduna State achieved the highest number of results (nine) and got the highest share with N3,960,000,000.00, while Katsina and Benue got the lowest amount of N540,000,000.00 each.
The 12 that missed out on the 2018 grants are Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara states, the statement stated while adding that they can participate in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respective performance years by meeting the EC and DLIs in the said years.
