Connect with us

Economy

$1bn withdrawn from Excess Crude Account to fund arms procurement — Minister of Finance, Ahmed

Published

on

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has explained the depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA), saying that it had not been funded for a while.

Ahmed briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She recalled that the sum of $1 billion was withdrawn from the ECA for the procurement of arms in consultation with state governors. 

She said: “On the issue of the Excess Crude Account, in the past four years, because of volatility in the cause oil market, we have not had accrual to the excess cause account. 

“So, what we have had, has been gradually used up for different purposes and it is always used in consultation with the National Economic Council, that is the governors, because this is a federation account. 

“The last approval that was given by the council was the withdrawal of $1billion to enhance security. We have been utilizing that.

“The last trench of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies are based on the contracts executed and its been used strictly for that security purpose. 

“So, the utilization of the account is with the full knowledge of the governors.”

NewsWireNGR reported that the ECA reduced significantly from the $35.7 million it was as of June 2022 to $376,655.09 as at July 25, 2022.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *