Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has denied a statement by President Bola Tinubu that the federal government gave N570 billion to all the States in the country.<\/p>\n
Makinde said this while addressing Nigerians in a broadcast during the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests against hunger and hardship.<\/p>\n
President Bola Tinubu had said his administration had disbursed \u20a6570bn to the 36 states, Makinde in a newsletter shared on his X handle on Thursday, said the state was not in the know of such a grant.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201c\u201cI responded to a question from a concerned citizen of Oyo State regarding the claim that the Federal Government \u2018gave\u2019 States over N570 billion as some kind of \u2018hardship fund\u2019 for citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me state categorically that this is yet another case of misrepresentation of facts. The said funds were part of the World Bank-assisted NG-CARES project\u2014a Programme for Results intervention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Bank facilitated an intervention to help States in Nigeria with COVID-19 Recovery. CARES means COVID-19 Action Recovery Economic Stimulus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was called the Programme for Results because States had to use their money in advance to implement the programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the World Bank verified the amount spent by the State, it reimbursed the States through the platform provided at the Federal level. The Federal Government did not give any State money; they were simply the conduit through which the reimbursements were made to States for money already spent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to note that the World Bank fund is a loan to States, not a grant. So, States will need to repay this loan. Note also that NG-CARES, which we christened Oyo-CARES in our State, predates the present federal administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further explained that the loan came in two tranches to states, saying Oyo State got \u20a65.98 billion in the first tranche and \u20a6822 million in the second tranche.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, in direct response to the message, the Federal Government did not give\u00a0Oyo State\u00a0any money. We were reimbursed funds (\u20a65.98 billion in the first instance and \u20a6822 million in the second instance).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe invested in the three result areas of NG-CARES, which includes inputs distribution to smallholder farmers within our State. In fact, when the World Bank saw our model for the distribution of inputs preceded by biometric capturing of beneficiary farmers, they adopted it as the NG-CARES model,\u201d governor Makinde added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has denied a statement by President Bola Tinubu that the federal government gave N570 billion to all the States in the country. Makinde said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n