The Finance Ministry has insisted that there is no missing N500 billion SURE-P fund as being alleged by the Senate adhoc Committee on the programme. In a statement released by the ministry, it was explained that the total funds accrued to the programme was N816 billion. The ministry explained that N316 billion of this was the component allocated to the Federal Government, whilst the balance N500 billion was allocated to States and Local Governments.
The statement said, “the claim of missing N500 billion is completely false. The total expected funds for SURE-P from subsidy savings for the Federal, state and local governments is N816 billion from February 2012 to December 2013. (Please note that SURE-P started in February 2012.)
“The Federal Government portion managed by the Kolade Committee for the period February 2012 to September 2013 is N300 billion after deductions for Stabilisation and other Special Accounts. As Dr Christopher Kolade confirmed to the National Assembly recently, this is the amount which SURE-P at the Federal level has received from the Federal Government.”