Kwara Receives N1.9b From FG

Kwara State government has received N1.9 billion ($5 million) from the Federal Government.

It said it got the money for fulfilling the state Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability’s (SFTAS) new disbursement-linked indicator related to budget reviews that prioritise COVID-19 economic recovery.

Commissioner for Finance and Planning Olasumbo Oyeyemi said the state won the SFTAS grant for also publishing an approved amended 2020 COVID-19 responsive budget by July 31, thereby meeting verification protocols for the programme.

Mrs. Oyeyemi added that “the four requirements in the amended budgets are revision of gross statutory allocation projections, compared to the original budget; reduction in non-priority overheads and capital expenditures, compared to the original budget; allocation of expenditures to COVID-19 response programmes for relief, restructuring and recovery (with total COVID-19 response expenditures representing at least 10% of the total amended budget expenditures); and identification of the financing sources to fully finance the budget deficit without the accumulation of new domestic expenditure arrears.”

The fund is meant to support budget implementation.

The state had earlier this year received $5 million for meeting verification protocols for SFTAS programme for results for the year 2018.

Assessment for the 2019 SIFTAS compliance is ongoing, with the state tipped to perform better in the next round of disbursement.