Federal Government has disbursed another round of performance-based grants to States.
N123.348 billion (USD 324.6million) was disbursed under the States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, said in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday that this followed the achievement of results by States in the just concluded 2019 Annual Performance Assessment (APA).
The assessment was carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation as the Independent Verification Agent and approved by the Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
According to Hajiya Ahmed, the disbursement included 91 billion naira achieved by 32 Eligible States across various Indicators covering fiscal transparency, accountability, expenditure efficiency, revenue mobilization and debt sustainability.
States received grants in accordance with the number of results achieved, with Sokoto State receiving the highest amount of 6.6 billion naira while Kano State got the lowest amount of 1.7 billion naira.
Bayelsa, Imo, Rivers and Zamfara States got zero allocation due to their inability to meet the 2019 eligibility criteria which required States to publish online approved annual budgets and audited financial statements within a specific timeframe.
The Minister said since the first disbursement in April 2020, the Federal Government had thus far disbursed N233billion under the $750million World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme-for-Results.
The World Bank programme is meant to strengthen fiscal management at the state level so as to ensure effective mobilisation and utilisation of financial resources to the benefit of their citizens in a transparent, accountable and sustainable manner.
RN