The World Bank’s $1.5 billion loan for states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is adding to economic viability, said the National Coordinator of the World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability Programme (SFTAS), Mr Stephen Okon.
The loan is to provide technical support to 36 states and FCT. At a capacity building workshop for journalists, Okon said: “It is in furtherance of the capacity building efforts under this programme that this workshop is specially organised to deepen the understanding of SFTAS Programme implementation by the media and by extension the general public”.
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Continuing, the programme coordinator said, the workshop “Is meant to explain the rationale behind the SFTAS programme implementation; appraise the status of programme implementation by implementing agencies and partners; promote national buy-in and ensure programme sustainability.”
He also said one of the achievements of the SFTAS has seen states “Strengthen their legal framework for debt management and fiscal responsibility by enacting a State Public Debt Legislation, improved timely and accurate debt reporting and debt sustainability analyses”.
Okon said it is to enable the reduction of the stock of domestic expenditure arrears and establish a fiscally sustainable response to COVID-19.