The government says it has disbursed N528.4 billion and supported a total of 233,974 micro and small businesses.
A total of N5.03 trillion plus an additional US$3.4 billion has been released to states by the Federal Government over the life of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, an official has said.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, made this known on Thursday at the presentation of President Muhammadu Buhari's administration scorecard (2015-2023) in Abuja.
By the prevailing average official exchange rate of N444 to a dollar, the amount sums to N6.5 trillion.
The minister said the support covers the 13% Derivation Refund to Oil Producing States, refund for construction of federal roads, ecological support, support from the Development of Natural Resources Fund, Paris Club refunds, support from the Stabilisation Fund, COVID intervention, amongst others.
"Mr. President has been uniquely generous in his financial support to states," the minister said.
Talking about the nation's borrowing plans, Mrs Ahmed explained that the nation has ensured that the debt facilities are sustainable.
"Our borrowings have been practical, sustainable and guided by our Debt Management Strategy. Our debt is 33% of the GDP, which is still the lowest on the African Continent," she said.
"We don't have any need to restructure our debt because debt management is on the first line charge and we have not defaulted. We have a projection of meeting our debt through short and medium term strategies. We are comfortable in our ability to meet our debt."
She added that the government has ensured full implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) by all MDAs, including Educational and Security Agencies, noting that a total of 723 MDAs have been enrolled into the IPPIS with an outstanding 5 MDAs.
Sub-National Interventions
In respect of State Finances and Investment, the minister added that the Ministry also facilitated the implementation of various Federal Government Intervention Schemes to sub-nationals and facilitated Federal Government's Intervention facilities for sectoral development in the states such as the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACs), Health Care Support Facility, Differentiated Cash Reserve Requirement (DCRR) Facility and Several Bonds Issuance Programme.
The ministry collaborated with relevant stakeholders in getting Mr. Buhari to sign an Executive Order (Eo1) on the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), to achieve reduction of the documentation requirements from 10 to 7 for exports and 14 to 8 for import activities, she said.
"We have optimized fiscal incentives to boost productivity in critical sectors, including Agriculture, Solid Minerals and Manufacturing - The Federal Government has disbursed N528,384,778,445.70 billion and supported a total of 233,974 MSMEs.
"In collaboration with AMCON, the Ministry was able to resolve a significant part of Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) disposable and recoveries of Non-Performing Loans," she added.
Mrs Ahmed explained that the ministry coordinates and aligns the operations of Banking and Financial Institutions by establishing financial relations among the Federal, States and Local Governments as well as parastatals and Government-owned companies. It also ensured restructuring of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), which manages GOEs and government-linked companies (GLCs) to drive value creation from different asset classes or investments of the FGN. MOFI's current portfolio consists of 130 corporate entities valued at about N19 trillion, she said, adding that the goal in the next 10 years is to grow MOFI's Assets Under Management (AUM) to about NGN 34 trillion and drive a minimum annualized average return of 15%.
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Fiscal Interventions
The minister added that the Federal Government launched the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS) in 2019 to leverage private sector capital and expertise to construct, repair and maintain critical road infrastructure in key economic corridors and industrial clusters.
"The President has approved 33 Road Projects, covering a total length of 1,564.95 km as of 2021. About N78.7 billion (about US$190 million) in tax credits have been issued thus far," she said.
In terms of domestic revenue mobilisation efforts, the minister said that the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI) was introduced in January 2019 just as the non-oil revenue share of total FGN revenues to fund the budget increased from 30% to 73%.
"In particular, revenues collected by FIRS grew from N6 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year to N10 trillion from January to September 2022," she said.
