Governors asked FG to borrow N50bn from CBN for March shortfall — Ahmed

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has said state governors wanted federal government to borrow N50 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to augment th federation account allocation committee (FAAC) shortfall in March, but the request was turned down.

Ahmed spoke while appearing on Good Morning Nigeria programme, a daily breakfast show on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), on Monday.

Her comments appear to be a response to the claim by Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, that the federal government printed between N50 billion to N60 billion to support March federal allocation to states.

Ahmed explained that whenever there is reduction in federal allocation, the federal government takes money from some reserve accounts, but in the case of March allocation which fell by N50 billion, all state governments were asked to manage their resources.

“It is a difficult time, I can explain to you how difficult it is not just for the federal government but also for the states, we see increasing reduction in our FAAC revenue,” she said.

“In the month of March, we had a shortfall of FAAC that is almost about N50 billion and we did not have enough accrued in any of those accounts, the states to be honest wanted us to borrow from the Central Bank, but we resisted, we just told everybody to go back to live within what they had.

“So it was very surprising for us when we heard a sitting governor saying that CBN has printed money for FAAC, that was very unfortunate because it is not true.”