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| The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State |
The 36 state governors
have decided to turn to the World Bank as one of the ways of surviving the
current economic downturn in the country, which has made it difficult for many
of them to pay workers’ salaries.
The
Punch report continues:
They
are putting machinery in place to access a US$3.25bn portfolio currently lying
idle in the bank.
The
Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari; and Kaduna State
Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, briefed State House correspondents about the decision
to approach the World Bank at the end of a meeting of the forum held inside the
Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
The
meeting, which started at about 8.45pm on Wednesday, ended in the early hours
of Thursday.
Yari,
who is the governor of Zamfara State, said he and his colleagues decided to
invite the Country Director of the World Bank, Rachid Benmessaoud, who briefed
them on the US$3.25bn fund available in the bank, which largely belongs to the
state governments but had not been accessed.
He
said because of the cumbersome procedure for accessing the fund, most of the
governors did not know that such existed in the bank.
Yari
explained that it was El-Rufai’s initiative that officials of the bank should
come and make the presentation so that the governors could be properly
educated.
He
added that the states had been defaulting in the payment of their own part of
the World Bank fund because of the economic downturn afflicting the country.
He,
however, said the bank officials had agreed to revisit the issue.
The
governor said, “They came to educate the governors so that they would know that
this money is there. This could help us in the kind of difficult situation we
are in so that we can move forward in terms of infrastructure development and
other matters in our respective states.
“We
had a presentation from the World Bank officials and we agreed on the terms.
The governors made their own contributions, especially the issue of counterpart
funding, which the bank accepted they are going to look into.”
Yari
added, “Also, they agreed that they would give us the details of how much each
state could access. As of now, they are ready to facilitate a kind of workshop
for the state governors, the commissioners of Finance and other officials for
us to know how best to move and access these funds for the betterment of our
respective states.
“We
discussed the issue of counterpart funding. It is more difficult for us to
fulfil our own part, because we are struggling to see how we can pay salaries.
That is the most difficult aspect of it and they promised that they would look
into it; and immediately that is done, the states will move fast to ensure we
access it.”
El-Rufai
admitted that all the state governments were broke, adding that this was the reason
why they must work hard to access the money.
He
expressed the belief that the idle money was capable of turning around the
fortunes of the states.
El-Rufai
explained, “The World Bank portfolio for the states for this year is US$4.25bn
and out of that, US$3.25bn is lying there undisbursed, which means the states
are not meeting their conditions or not moving fast enough to draw this US$3.25bn.
“You
know US$3.25bn can do a lot to improve the lives and livelihood of our citizens
in the states, and the World Bank has expressed its flexibility to look into
the challenges we are facing as well as the procedure to ease accessing this
money. The World Bank wants us to withdraw the money as quickly as possible so
that our citizens will get the benefits from health to education, agriculture
and the revival of livestock and water supply.
“These are the areas for which most of these funds are dedicated and we all need the money, because we are all broke. So, we are going to work very hard to try to get the money in trust.”
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