The Central Bank of Nigeria has offered a fresh bridging financing to States as they resume the repayment of the FG-backed Facility. This is coming on the heels of the meeting of National Economic Council. According to the report of the meeting the NEC members were informed that “the issue of the repayment of the Budget Support Facility has now been resolved after a meeting presided over earlier this week by the Vice President, Governor Kayode Fayemi, representing the States, the Finance Minister, and the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele. This arrangement will enable the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory to have a breathing space and their development effort that has been seriously constrained by revenue short falls.
Meanwhile, National Economic Council has endorsed plans for next year’s budget. This is as plans for the allocation of Nigeria’s scarce resources begins to gather pace. The National Economic Council (NEC) endorsed the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) which was presented to it at an emergency meeting of the Council. This was one of the major highlights of the emergency meeting of the Council which held virtually and was presided over by the Vice President, with several State Governors, FCT Minister, Finance Minister, Central Bank Governor, and other government officials in attendance.
The Council comprises the 36 State Governors, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as well as other senior Federal Government officials. During the presentation of the MTEF to the Council, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, stated that the draft of the 2022-2024 MTEF/FSP was prepared against the backdrop of global economic recovery, amidst improved vaccination outlook and lower incidence of (COVID-19) infection. She also said the Nigerian economy sustained a tepid recovery in first quarter of 2021 posting a Year-on-Year (YoY) GDP growth of 0.51%, consolidating the exit from recession in Q4 2020, reflecting the easing of COVID-19 induced restrictions.
The Minister recalled that the economy, which lapsed into recession in Q3 2020, after two successive quarters of negative GDP growth, promptly emerged from the recession with a positive 0.11% GDP growth in Q4 2020. She added that the Medium Term Fiscal Framework showed that there are continuing global challenges in the aftermath of the COVID-19. The presentation to the Council by Dr. Zainab Ahmed today followed the public presentation of the paper yesterday and a forthcoming presentation to the Federal Executive Council soon.
