General Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, July 6, 2015 approved a relief fund of over N702.7 billion to ease the outstanding salaries for workers in different states across the nation.
The embarrassing situation has earned the affected states some criticisms especially Osun State led by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who has not paid workers for over seven months.
Vanguard gathered that a three-pronged relief package that will end the workers plight include:
– The sharing of about $2.1 billion (N413.7 billion) in fresh allocation between the states and the federal government. The money is sourced from recent LNG proceeds to the federation account, and its release approved by the president;
– A Central Bank-packaged special intervention fund that will offer financing to the states, ranging from between N250 billion to N300 billion. This would be a soft loan available to states to access for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries;
– And a debt relief program proposed by the Debt Management Office, DMO, which will help states restructure their commercial loans currently put at over N660 billion, and extend the life span of such loans while reducing their debt-servicing expenditures.
Editor’s Note: This story originally put the bailout figure at N400 billion. It is actually N702.7 billion.
