The executive governor of Oyo state, Gov. Seyi Makinde said the federal government did not give them money as regards the ongoing hunger in the country.
President Tinubu recently said the FG has released fresh N570 Billion, to curb the hunger and hardship in the country, this action was taken in response to the #EndBadGovernance protest.
“Also, more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nano-businesses are expected to benefit,” President Tinubu claimed.
Seyi Makinde, while speaking on Thursday with reporters said, the N570 Billion, is an intervention program from the World Bank to help Nigerian States in recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After the World Bank verified the amount spent by the state, it reimbursed the states through the platform provided at the federal level. The federal government did not give any State money; they were simply the conduit through which the reimbursements were made to states for money already spent.”
The governor pointed out that the money is not a grant, but a loan, which the state government will pay back.
“So, in direct response to the message, the federal government did not give Oyo state any money. We were reimbursed funds (N5.98 billion in the first instance and N822 million in the second instance) we invested in the three result areas of NG-CARES, which includes inputs distribution to smallholder farmers within our State.
“When the World Bank saw our model for the distribution of inputs preceded by biometric capturing of beneficiary farmers, they adopted it as the NG-CARES model,” the governor pointed out.
