Briefing journalists after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Thursday, Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajumobi revealed that as at the 15th September the Excess Crude Oil Account has a balance of $2.257 billion.
The meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, lasted five hours, with many of the governors in attendance.
The governor also disclosed that as of 2013, N13 billion had been disbursed to the state governments for fixing federal roads. “Another issue discussed is on refund of expenses incurred on repairs of federal roads by states. As listed here, we have 13 states that have fully complied with the reimbursement requirements, we have 8 states that have partially complied, 21 states without compliance and the total sum of claims to be reimbursed is exactly 535, 596, 386. In other words, N535.5 billion.
“Then, we have N13 billion that has been disbursed to the states already as at 2013. The challenges they faced had to do with inadequate funding in the ministry,” Ajimobi said.
He said the council also discussed the recent conversion of state governments’ bank loans into federal government bonds which, according to him, stood at N500 billion.
“The restructuring was done into Federal Government bonds and the Director General of the Debt Management Office reported as follows: That 26 states applied for the loans, that 11 states have concluded and submitted all relevant documents, that 13 states are involved in the second phase to commence immediately and the total money involved in the restructuring stood at over N500 billion”, he stated.
Ajimobi said the Accountant-General of the Federation reported to the council that the Excess Crude Account stood at $2.257 billion as of September 15.
“The AGF reported to us that we have Excess Crude proceed as at September 15 amounting to over $2.257 billion. This was established and he (AGF) confirmed the position,” he said.
