Federal projects: 24 states refunded N477bn

The sum of N447bn has so far been refunded to 24 states by the current administration as expenses incurred on federal projects.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, told reporters in Abuja Wednesday that the Federal Executive Council approved N18bn refund for Yobe State out of the N20bn bill it submitted. 

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He said most of the states would have gone down but for the bailout funds made available to them by the administration. 

Mohammed said the reimbursement was different from the bailout.

“Only last week, Lagos State government came to Federal Executive Council with a memo, asking for us to convert the Lagos State Lekki Concession Company loan to a sovereign guarantee and what that means, effectively, is that Lagos State government could no longer bear the burden of paying for the loan they took to construct Lekki. So, federal government accepted. 

“By doing so, now they’re given a longer term to pay the loan and lower interest. So, these are some of the things that the federal government has been doing to ensure that there’s stability and everybody is happy, irrespective of whether you are APC or PDP.”