We Disbursed N691.560bn Paris Club Refunds in March – Finance Minister
… No new refunds pending
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, Monday, clarified that the N691.560 billion Paris Club refunds has already been disbursed to states since March 2019 after it was verified.
Ahmed made the clarification by her explanation in a statement by her Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Mr Paul Ella Abechi, following the news making the rounds in the media that soon states will receive disbursement of outstanding balance of the Paris Club debts on verification made amounting to a total sum of N691.560 billion by the Ministry due to exchange rate differential at the point of payment instead of the total sum of N649.434 billion that was verified.
The Minister also pointed to her address at the recent World Press Conference in Abuja, which reads thus; “For the final phase of the Paris Club debts refunds, the total sum of N649.434 billion was verified by the Ministry as the outstanding balance to be refunded to the State Governments.
“The payments made by the CBN as at March 2019, is N691.560 billion. The increase in CBN payments partly arose from exchange rate differential at the point of payment.”
The statement also made it clear that there is no new tranche of Paris Club Refunds to be disbursed to states, because the money has already been disbursed in March 2019.