By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief
The 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, will soon access a World Bank’s $750 million facility. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while addressing the 7th meeting of the Community of Practice (CoP) made up of State Commissioners for Budget and Planning, in Abuja ,yesterday.
She said that fiscal responsibility of the states was a prerequisite for accessing the World Bank facility.
According to her, “The meetings had the benefit of hosting the World Bank and the Governors’ Forum. During the course of this exercise, the Ministry of Finance had to, on instruction from the President, provide bailouts to the states because at one point, states were not able to pay salaries.
“Part of the conditions that was given for those bailouts is a fiscal responsibility plan which needed to be implemented for the state to continue to be qualified to access the funds that the Federal Government…
