State governors to borrow 17tr from Pension Fund

The thirty-six State governors, under the aegis of Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), have endorsed proposals to borrow about N17 Trillion from the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the Accumulated Pension Funds.

The endorsement was part of resolutions at the end of the 22nd NGF meeting which was contained in a communiqué personally signed by the Chairman of NGF and the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

According to the communiqué, Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC)’s Adhoc Committee on Leveraging Portion of Accumulated Pension Funds for Investment in NSIA, Governor Nasir el Rufa’i, briefed the Forum on a proposed National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF) under the auspices of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) such that a total sum of N2 trillion at 9% interest can be accessed through the NSIA.

The NGF Chairman noted that the CBN Governor had a similar proposal to access N15 trillion Naira for national infrastructure funding through INFRACREDIT at a lower interest rate of 5%.

Fayemi further stated that the governors have resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari as soon as possible to address security challenges across the country particularly in the light of the carnage in Borno State.

He also explained the delayed release of Saving One Million Lives (SOML) funding, saying that the delay was due to observations made by the World Bank on the technical quality of the SMART Survey.

According to him, survey it difficult to use the result for fund disbursement, and the total amount won by the States was more than the funds remaining in the funding envelope. He proposed the option of using a prorated approach to disburse the fund and urged the Minister of Health to convene a meeting of the SOML Steering Committee to resolve the issue.

According to the chairman, the governors also resolved to among other things “Support the necessary reforms that will result in a police force that works for all”.

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