Finance minister Mrs Zainab Ahmed said President Muhamadu Buhari had given approval for the withdrawal of $150m from the Sovereign Wealth Fund for distribution to the three tiers of government.

She said the amount would be withdrawn from the stabilisation fund component of the SWF.

The fund is currently being managed by Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority.

Zainab said the need to withdraw the amount was to cushion the negative impact of the drop in revenue on the federation account.

She added that since January, revenue inflow into the account had been on a decline, a situation that had affected the amount distributed to the three tiers of government by the Federation Account Allocation Committee.

The minister said based on the fiscal assumptions underpinning the 2020 Appropriation Act, monthly FAAC disbursements to the federal and state governments were projected at N888.5bn.

However, due to the significant drop in international oil prices, she said FAAC monthly disbursements declined to N716.3bn in January and N647.4bn in February 2020.

In her words, “Our experience shows that monthly average FAAC receipts must be at least N650bn for the federal and state governments to meet their current obligations.

“Unfortunately, we project that monthly receipts may decline to below N400bn over the next three to six months.”

Punch