TheCable

The federal government and the 36 states have agreed to share $1.7 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

Ahmed Idris, accountant general of the federation, disclosed this on Monday at the end of a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Today, we are going to meet. The FAAC is going to meet, and we are going to distribute – as agreed and directed during the NEC meeting last week – and the position is very clear: what we met on ground is what we are going to distribute,” he said.

“It is hovering between $1.6 to $1.7 billion, and that is what we are going to distribute among all the three tiers of governments – the federal, states and local governments based on the approved formula.”

Anastasia Nwaobia, permanent secretary in the ministry of finance, who also attended the meeting, said the nation’s finance was in good condition.

She also promised that under her watch, the ministry would focus on ways to shore up revenue.

“The state of Nigerian finances is okay, our finances are still okay, though we are still going through challenges of revenue stream to government,” she said.

“This you know obviously is from the oil shock; the price of oil that has dropped.

“It has significantly reduced the revenue stream to government, but we are working on other ways to see how we can shore up the revenue, so that we will be able to meet our expenditure.”