Presidential Research & Communications Unit

The National Economic Council (NEC) on December 10 in Abuja, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to refund $1.818 billion (N225 billion) from the excess crude oil sales account to states that were not indebted to the Paris Club within one week.

The sum represent the deductions made from all states after paying off $12 billion Paris Club debt by the immediate past administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to get $18 billion written off by the creditor nations, despite the fact that not all the States are indebted to the club of creditors.

The CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, while briefing the media on the out come of the meeting, in company of the Kebbi State Governor Alhaji Sa’idu Usman Nasamu Dakin Gari and Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, disclosed that council has approved the release of N313 billion, being November funds from the Federation Account.

Prof. Soludo said that five major presentations were made to the National Economic Council by various agencies and institutions on issues pertaining to the management of the national economy.

The first presentation is the modalities and matters arising on the management of the excess crude account, issue about saving some of the excess crude and the nature of savings, what to do with the excess crude itself, when to spend it, how to spend and on what to spend.

After extensive deliberations by the Minister of Finance, Council resolved to set up a technical committee to further examine the issues and work out further details on how, when and what with regards to the implementation of the excess crude account.

The seven-man technical committee has the Kwara state Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Chairman, with the governors of Benue and Bauchi states as members.

Other members include, the CBN governor, Minister of Finance, Minister of National Planning and the Executive Secretary of National Planning and Special Assistant to the Vice President on Economic Matters as the Secretariat.

It would be recalled that Council had, at its October meeting, disclosed that seven states who’s names were not made public, were owing the other 29 states from the debt relief settlement and were to pay back from the excess crude oil fund due them after reconciliation from the Debt Management Office (DMO).
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It was also resolved that government is to save the equivalent of N1 trillion from the excess crude account and use that to settle the Paris Club before sharing the balance in the excess crude account.

The second presentation was by the office of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) to sensitise the NEC members on the role of NEPAD on the management of the national economy, the various activities of NEPAD and to implore the state governors to set up and operationalise NEPAD offices in their respective states.

The third presentation was on the report of the Presidential Task Force on the primary healthcare centres. Deductions had been made from the various accounts of the local government and the MOU signed between ALGON and Mathan Nigeria Ltd.

According to him, “NEC said that the deductions of the 774 local government areas have been halted before on the account of complains of irregularities and illegalities.

Subsequently, the National Economic Council agreed that the subsisting MOU be terminated and that the outstanding balance with the Central Bank as well as Bank PHB deducted already should be returned to the various local governments that own them. Also, there should be reconciliation in the various states where the projects have commenced for state governments to work with their local governments and some technical consultants to evaluate the level of actual work on the ground and this should be deducted from the various local governments and so on. The payment to Mathan Nig Ltd. should be evaluated to determine whether they should make further refunds.”

The fourth presentation was made by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on the roles of states in disaster management and Council commended their activities.

The fifth presentation was made by MD of the Bank of Industry, who explored the great work being done by the Bank and the industrialisation of Nigeria, especially in the last two years. He explored the challenges ahead and made some interesting proposals about the way forward for the industrialisation programme of Nigeria.

That the presentation was commended and enjoined to continue to focus more sharply on industrialisation and work hard on areas pertaining to market access for the output of Nigerian industries. And very importantly, Council mandated that the key shareholders of Bank of Industry, Ministry of Finance Incorporated and CBN should meet and deliberate on ways and means of increasing the re-capitalisation of the bank itself.

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