FG to Disburse N649bn Paris Fund to States

• FG to Disburse N649bn Paris Fund to States

The Federal Government has said it would disburse the remaining outstanding balance of Paris Fund to the state governments soon.

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Thursday said: “The total sum of N649.434 billion was verified by the Ministry as the outstanding balance to be refunded to the State Governments.”

The minister also revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria has made a total of N691.50 billion payment to the states.

“The increase in CBN payments partly arose from exchange rate differential at the point of payment,” she said.

Ahmed, while not saying much about the status of the states regarding the disbursements noted that “some states still have outstanding balances, which will be refunded, in due course.”

The finance minister also stated that a total sum of N4.8 trillion was distributed to the three tiers of government between September 2018 and April 2019 from the Federation Account noting “the sum of N784.7 billion realized from Value Added Tax (VAT) for the same period was also shared.”