The Federal Government has denied receiving $5.6billion for Covid-19 donations from anyone or any corporate organisation to cushion the effect of the disease in the country.
The Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clement Ikanade Agba, who rose to the defense of the government yesterday in Abuja, said he was reacting to social media publications by Civil Society Organisations, (CSOs), accusing the government to have received and mismanaged the sum of $5.6billion.
“They are saying that the country received a donation of $5.6billion. That is incorrect,” Agba stated, adding that, “What happened was that as a result of a shortfall in revenue due to Covid19 where there were disruptions in supply and the pandemic also led to a reduction in the price of crude.
“Because of the demand issue OPEC had to reduce the production of the various member country and Nigeria was not left out. “We have the capacity of producing 2.5million barrels a day, but we were restricted to 1.4million barrels, which affected revenue and the price came as low as 12 dollars per barrel; so, we needed to look for funds to ensure that we augment the budget to meet up with stimulating the economy.
“There are basically two sources of funding the 2.3trillion. The first 500billion have to come from a special account, which we embedded in the revised budget and the other 1.8billion “, he further stated.
