Our Own Share Of N570 Billion Was For NG Cares Funds.

 

 The Bayelsa government on Monday disclosed  it  actually received its share of the N570 billion grants from Federal Governments   President  Bola Tinubu  revealed during a recent broadcast in response to the hunger protest maintaining that it was for NG Cares Funds Intervention.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu had disclosed at  the heat of the endbadgovernace protest that the federal government disbursed N570 Billion to be shared among the 36 states to cushion the effect of hunger.

Speaking in Yenagoa  during a Transparency Briefing  for the months of May and June, 2024, Mr Timipre Seipolu, Technical Adviser to Bayelsa Governor on Treasury stated that the state  got  N10.8  as share for the state.

Seipolu explained that the N570 billion referenced by President Tinubu was part of the NG Cares funds for social interventions in collaboration with the World Bank.

He explained: “Recently it's been on the news that over N500 billion given to states in the country and some governors have actually  tried to explain how the funds came, the funds are actually coming under NG Cares."

“The NG Cares Programme is a Programme run by the states, the Federal Government and the World Bank and the programme is running in such a way that the states are  expected to make some expenditures."

“These expenditures are the  areas of agriculture through FADAMA and after some period, like  quarterly, the expenditures are refunded. That is after the projects are independently verified."0

“The support to SMEs and individuals like the vulnerable and elderly are dome in accordance to World Bank templates  before refunds can be made and not complying with the template can lead to delays."

  “So the N10.8 billion the state received  was money that the government spent .on projects through the NG Cares."

 Seipolu also  disclosed as at June ending, the available fund stood at N112.26 billion adding  that the fund has been earmarked for ongoing infrastructure projects across the state. 

Giving the breakdown of income and Expenditure of the state for the months of May, June and July,  Seipulo, said the state got over N170 billion  for the three months while the balance of N81.1 billion was brought forward from April raising  it to N251.6 billion.

Earlier, Mrs Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy thanked the media for adequately reporting the Prosperity Government 

She also disclosed the  commitment of the prosperity  government to the transparency laws which she said  makes it mandatory to disclose the income and expenditure profile of the state.

She said:" I want to thank the media for the role you have played in reporting the distribution of palliatives the federal government gave to the state and the issue of power outage in the state. I really appreciate your efforts."