Nigeria’s Federal Government has reportedly released a breakdown of the first part of the Paris Club refunds paid to states to date.

A statement by Salisu Danbatta, Director of Information in the Ministry of Finance said payments, totalling N516.38 billion, were made to the 36 states and the FCT upon the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari on November 21 2016, Premium Times reports.

The payments were in partial settlement of longstanding claims by State Governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation for external debt service arising between 1995 and 2002.

The debt service deductions are in respect of the Paris Club, London Club and Multilateral debts of the FG and States. While Nigeria reached a final agreement for debt relief with the Paris Club in October 2005, some States had already been overcharged.

The government had initially turned down repeated requests to release the payment details.

The releases were conditional upon a minimum of 50 per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions.

Danbatta said a detailed report is being compiled for presentation to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, as part of the process for approval for the release of any subsequent tranches.

See the payment details below:

REFUND OF OVERDEDUCTIONS ON PARIS CLUB LOANS ON THE ACCOUNTS OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS (1995-2002)

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram