The federal government has planned to borrow $750 million on behalf of states to stimulate local economies across the country.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this in Abuja on Friday at the inauguration ceremony of the Federal Steering Committees of the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (N-CARES).
She said the federal government “is in the process of accessing a World Bank loan of $750 million on behalf of the states, to stimulate the local economy and support vulnerable household’s consumption.”
“In going to borrow the money, the federal government is considering the cause and consequences of civil unrest and Covid-19 in the country.
The consequences will be too high if we ignore the root cause of rising civil unrest in our country.
We must, therefore, fashion out ways of ensuring that post Covid-19 is not injurious to the Nigerian people and the economy.”
“The federal government has created several windows of interventions as captured in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) to, among other things, “respond robustly and appropriately to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, identify fiscal measures to enhance oil and non-oil government revenues and reduce non-essential spending,” she said.
On the need for proper implementation, Ahmed said: “To ensure that the implementation of the N-CARES is in line with the federal government priorities as outlined in the ESP, the Federal Steering Committee, made up of ministers and permanent secretaries as well as a Technical Committee, made up of directors of key ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) has to be in place.”
