Governors to meet in Abuja over last tranche of Paris Club refund

Governors from the 36 states of the federation will on Wednesday night meet in Abuja to discuss the last tranche of the Paris Club refund.

The meeting will hold under the auspices of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.

Paris Club refund is a partial settlement of long-standing 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 payment of the first tranche, which was N388 billion, was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 16, 2016.

Another tranche, N134.44 billion, was released to the states in July 2017; bringing the total sum disbursed to states to N522.74 billion.

In October, seven governors met with the president on behalf of their colleagues to demand the payment of the balance to them saying it would be used for projects and recurrent needs in their respective states.

In December 2017, states got another tranche of N243.79 billion.

Also on the agenda of the meeting is the update on the recovery of stamp duties, traffic management systems at the state level, and review of the National Economic Council agenda.

Others are consultations on the agreement establishing the African Continental Free trade area ( AfCFTA), briefing on 2018 seasonal rainfall predictions, replicating edumarshals project at the state level and update on TV and radio rates collection project.