President Buhari to meet 36 states governors at the presidential villa, Abuja tomorrow

  

    President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow meet with all the 36 states governors at the presidential villa, Abuja.
  President Buhari had on December 16 last year approved the payment of the first tranche of N516.38 billion.
  In July this year, the federal government again released N243.79 billion as the second tranche of the Paris Club refund to the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
  With the release of the second tranche of N243.79bn, the amount so far disbursed to states as refund under the Paris Club loan stands at N760.17 billion. The funds, which were released to state governments as part of wider efforts to stimulate the economy, were specifically designed to support states in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers. The releases were conditional upon a minimum of 50 per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions.
   The Paris Club refund is a settlement of long-standing claims by state governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee’s, FAAC’s, allocation for external debt service, arising between 1995 and 2002.

Sources revealed that one of the primes in the agenda of the meeting is to seek the president’s approval for the final payment of N200 billion of the Paris Club refund.