States to get bailout fund soon – Presidency

                                                                   
The Presidency has said that the states in the country will soon be able to access the bailout fund approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari approved the funds in a bid to ease the hardship being faced by states which have been unable to pay workers’ salaries.

The comments were contained in a statement released on Tuesday, July 28, 2015, by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo’s media aide, Laolu Akande.
It reads:

"The implementation of a three-pronged financial intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari to assuage workers plight and support the states is now in progress. Specifically, state governments will start benefiting from the special intervention fund of between N250B to N300B in a matter of weeks.”

“Currently, planning meetings are being held between members of the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC and CBN, on the one hand, and also between CBN and commercial banks on the other hand, regarding details of the special intervention fund and the debt relief program of the President for the states.”

“Within weeks from now, the states are expected to start benefiting from this two other parts of the presidential intervention. It would be recalled that the details of the presidential intervention are in three parts: The sharing of about $2.1B in fresh allocation between the states and the federal government. The money was sourced from recent LNG proceeds to the federation account, and its release okayed by the president.”

“None of the three parts of this intervention would have been possible without the creativity and approval of President Buhari. It should be noted that the backlog of the salaries in some of the states went back several months before the president took office.”