The Nigerian Government approved the sum of N9.6 billion to Plateau and Borno State Governments for road projects built by the states on behalf of the Federal Government.
This was disclosed by Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.
This comes after President Muhammadu Buhari recently approved the sum of N1.7 trillion as derivation arrears to oil-producing states.
Outstanding payments: The Minister revealed that the states had outstanding payments with respect to eligible roads for previous interventions on Federal Government roads.
- “We presented two policy memoranda. The first was for a refund to two state governments for previous interventions on Federal Government roads, subject to the July 2016 cut-off after which refunds will no longer be eligible.
- “The two states which had outstanding with respect to eligible roads are Plateau and Borno.
- ”Council approved the refund of N6, 601,769, 470, 99 in favour of Plateau State and the sum of N3, 084, 797, 113.34 for Borno State.”
Toll Clearing: Also approved by the FEC includes a memorandum that informed it about the commencement of a procurement process for a Central Clearing House for the operations of Toll Plaza Concessionaires, which he says will also provide visibility for government to see what was going on in the operations of each concessionaire.
- “This approval will give room for a private sector operator to build a Central Clearing House at its own expense, operate it, recover and then ultimately transfer it back to the government.
- ”What the Central Clearing House will do is synchronise interoperability between different toll systems that may be used by different concessionaires when they commence their tolls.
- ”It will also provide a stop accounting system and a single payment recovery system where everybody is paid at the end of the operations.
What you should know
President Muhammadu Buhari late last year approved a total payment of N1.7 trillion to 9 oil-producing states as a 13% oil derivation subsidy and SURE-P refunds owed them by the federal government.
The 9 states were also paid N625.43 billion as a 13% derivation fund, subsidy, and SURE-P refunds from the federation account in the last 2 years.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s added the states to have received the refunds dating from 1999 to 2021 including Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers.
