FG Begins Disbursement of N655bn Bridge Financing
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FG Begins Disbursement of N655bn Bridge Financing
By Alabidun Shuaib Abdulrahman
The Bridge Facility is presently being processed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, according to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, who told the National Economic Council on Thursday.
The N656.11 billion approved Bridge facility would be distributed to the states in six installments over six months.
Each of the 36 states will get a total loan of N18.2 billion, with a 30-year tenor and a two-year moratorium at a 9% interest rate.
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Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, made the disclosure in a statement.
The statement was titled “36 states to share N656billion new FG support at N18b each’.
According to the statement, “the Facility is to help the States afford the repayment of previous bailoutfacilities guaranteed for them by the Federal Government.”
The statement was titled, “36 States to Share N656bn New FG Support at N18b Each”
On July 15, the Council received updates on the Budget Support Facility for States, with the finance minister informing the Council that deductions from state governments would begin soon as reimbursement for the previous CBN bailout.
Following that, the states sought additional assistance, which led to the concept of bridge financing.
Dr Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, also spoke at the meeting on Thursday, updating the Council on the status of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.
Shuaib noted that Nigeria has received over 100 million doses of COVID–19 vaccines (from COVAX, AfricanUnion, other countries) which he said was sufficient to ramp up vaccination for about 50 per cent of the targeted population.
“Given the availability ofvaccines, we have started rolling out a plan to vaccinate 50 percent ofNigerians, 18 years and above by January 31st, 2022,” the NPHCDA DG said, adding that there would be a scaling up of over 3,000 health facilities nationwide.
