Sixteen States are to share N1.6billion to ameliorate the effect of the floods that have ravaged them, according to spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, who briefed journalists at the close of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Rainfall in the last few weeks have wreaked havoc across the country.
The fund would be taken from the Federal Government’s Ecological Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria and be handed over to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to manage.
The States slated to benefit are Akwa Ibom, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Plateau, Sokoto, and Edo.
Another N740 billion of outstanding pensions and salary arrears, and N1.93 trillion of other obligations including due to federal government contractors and suppliers. State governments that have executed projects on behalf of the federal government are to get refunds, too.
Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, told journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that the obligations were accumulated over the last two decades and will be paid through bonds and promissory note issuance to resolve long outstanding dues and to also stimulate economic activity.