The Federal Government has bowed to pressure from State Governors by liquidating the Excess Crude Account.
With this development, the balance of $1.7 billion in the account would be distributed based on approved formula.
This was revealed by the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who told State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday.
The Eagle Online reports that the existence and modus operandi of the ECA has been a source of controversy between the Federal and State Governments over the years.
It will be recalled that President Buhari had while inaugurating the National Economic Council last week Monday directed all revenues accruing to the Federation should be remitted into the Federation Account forthwith.
The President has been under intense pressure to approve the sharing of the money in the ECA so that states could pay their workers’ salaries.
The money will be shared under the auspices of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, which comprises of Commissioners of Finance in the 36 states of the Federation
The Federation Account Allocation Committee will meet in Abuja to consider the funds remaining in the ECA account and share among the Federal Government, States Governments and the 774 local government councils.
Idris told State House correspondents that after a meeting with President Buhari that the amount would be distributed based on approved formula.
He said: “It is hovering between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion and that is what we are going to distribute among all the three tiers of governments, the federal, states and local governments based on the approved formula.
“Even today we are going to meet.
“The FAAC is going to meet and we are going to distribute as agreed and directed during the NEC meeting last week and the position is very clear.
“What we met on ground is what we are going to distribute.
“Well, the general message is clear: Mr. President had a clear direction, which we all have to fall in line, prudence management of resources and identify more alternative ways of generating revenue, which we are set to do and to manage the meagre resources we found on ground very efficiently and effectively for the betterment of the economy.”
Speaking on their mission at the State House, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Anastasia Daniel Nwobia, said: “We are basically here to brief the President on the activities of the Ministry of Finance.
“Well, routinely, we go on with our work, our functions as the Ministry of Finance, the work has not stopped.
“Government is a continuum so all our mandates and functions, we will continue to implement them as required.
“The state of Nigerian finances is okay.
“Our finances are still okay, though we are still going through challenges of revenue stream to government and this you know obviously is from the oil shock, the price of oil that has dropped.
“It has significantly reduced the revenue stream to government, but we are working in other ways to see how we can shore up the revenue, so that we will be able to meet our expenditure.”
On what the President’s response was, Nwobia said: “Obviously, when you brief the President, he will tell you what he expects in certain aspects of your operations and we gave taken our briefings in that regard.”
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