Expdonaloaded News; Bailout: FG issues bonds to 11 states

As part of the palliatives approved for state governments to enable them meet their financial obligations, the National Economic Council (NEC) has said the Federal Government has issued bonds to 11 out of the 22 states that applied. The NEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), said 22 states had applied for their commercial loans to be converted to FG Bonds as at August 19.

The bonds were issued to 14 banks after submitting the reconciled figures and other required documents for the restructuring.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) is now reviewing the additional submissions by states in the second phase of the programme.
This was disclosed to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting by Governors Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun); Willie Obiano (Anambra); Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Muhammed Badaru (Jigawa).
Ahmed said the latest on the terms of restructuring of states’ indebtedness to commercial banks were contained in the presentations made to the council by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the DMO.
He urged the remaining 11 states to quickly put their documentation in place to see that they fit into the time scheduled.
The governor said: “The DG of DMO told the council that based on the approval of Mr. President on the plan to restructure bank loans of states into FG bonds in order to address fiscal imbalance, 22 states had submitted reports and applied for restructuring as at August 19.
“The DG also said the DMO had requested the states to reconcile figures with the banks and have been jointly authenticated with the banks as at June 30.
Badaru said the council was also briefed on developments in the power sector, saying there had been overall increase in power supply by 29 per cent as at the first six weeks of the present administration.
He said power generation reached 4,6662MW by July 29.
The governor said the council was informed that the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s management contract had been extended for another year.
He said council was informed that there is currently a 45 per cent default rate on payments of electricity by state governments, adding that they have been urged to ensure payments of electricity bills by their Ministries, Departments and Agencies.