FG drains ECA of $1.68b in one month

The Federal Government has withdrawn $1.68 billion from the Excess Crude Account in one month, leaving a balance of $631 million in the strategic Excess Crude Account as at December 19.

This was disclosed on Wednesday by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, when he addressed newsmen at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting in Abuja.

Isa-Dutse said the money was used to off-set the last tranche of the Paris Club obligations to states.

He said: Isa-Dutse announced that $2.246 billion was withdrawn and shared to states as part of the Paris Club refund.

To this end, he said the Excess Crude Account had gone down from $2.319 billion in October, to $631 million in the month of November.

He said: “The deductions was for the final payment of the Paris Club Refund.

“The final payments to states have been made and the figure was deducted from the Excess Crude Account.

“A decision was taken to make these refunds and part of that decision is for the refund to be funded from the Excess Crude Account.

“All the required approvals were obtained from the President and Federal Executive Council.”