The federal government will shortly distribute the $338.98 million it received from the World Bank in 2022 to the states. The money was made available as part of the 2018-launched State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme.
The SFTAS initiative, which was created to increase accountability and transparency at the subnational level, will come to an end this year. The World Bank pledged a total of $1.5 billion to the project in two installments of $750 million (December 2018 and December 2020).
Despite being a grant to state governments, the money is actually a debt to the federal government. According to a search on the World Bank website, the Federal Government received four payments in 2022.
The first disbursement was made in April 2022, with the release of $700,036.87, while the second was $330.99m in June. The third disbursement was in October with the release of $6.83m, while the last disbursement was $450,419 in November this year.
Recently, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that states had received N471.9bn of the $1.5bn World Bank-assisted SFTAS Programme for Results.
On Monday, during a special dinner by the Programmes Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the World Bank with state governors to celebrate SFTAS achievement, the finance minister said that the last tranche of the funds would be released to states “in a few weeks.”
She said, “I am pleased to inform you that in the next few weeks, your states will receive the last tranche of performance-based grants, including the sum of N1bn withheld by the Central Bank through naira exchange deficit thus bringing to a close, the Performance for Results Grant even though the technical assistance component will continue to be delivered by implementing agencies and partners till June 2023 when the programme will finally wind down.”
During the dinner, awards were presented to different states for different achievement levels.
