The Delta State House of Assembly, DSHA, has approved the N30 billion requested by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to apply for Bailout Loans from the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to defray the outstanding salaries for public servants in the state and fund capital projects.
The approval for the loan, totaling about N30 billion, came after the consideration of the request on its merits on the floor of the house in a debate led by the Majority Leader, Hon Tim Owhefere during plenary, presided over by the Speaker, Hon Monday Igbuya.
Governor Okowa in the letter to the Assembly and read by the Speaker, Igbuya informed the House that presently the state government is saddled with a backlog of outstanding salaries due to its employees as well as pension commitments to the tune of N50.2billion.
He attributed the development to continuous decline in her revenue from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, occasioned by the dwindling oil prices.
The Governor disclosed that as part of the federal government’s bailout program for the states of the federation, CBN advised the states to submit data on outstanding debts profile to commercial banks and salaries obligation to public servants.
Dr Okowa stated the CBN also indicated it’s readiness to provide a loan of N10 billion at a concessionary interest of 9% per annum to all state governments to aid their funding of capital projects, aside the loan to pay up backlog of salaries and pension commitments.
He told the House that it has become necessary to accept the kind offer of the federal government in form of Bailout loans totaling over N20 billion, saying the sum is made up of over N10billion for the settlement of outstanding salaries and N10 billion for funding of capital projects.
Dr Okowa disclosed that the request to approach the federal government for the bailout loan was approved by the state executive council at its fifteen meeting of September 1st 2015, a copy of the extract attached to the application to the house.
He noted that the approval of the state legislature is a mandatory requirement to the conclusion of the loan transaction and appealed to the house to by way of resolution approve the request to enable him apply for the loans.