Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, has revealed that state governors, in consultations with the national economic council (NEC), are aware of withdrawals from the excess crude account (ECA).
Ahmed stated this on Wednesday at the end of the federal executive council (FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the federation account allocation committee (FAAC) meeting for July, the federal government said the balance in the ECA dropped from $35.37 million to $376,655 in June, without providing further details.
ECA is the difference between the market price of crude oil and the budgeted price of crude oil in Nigeria’s budget.
She stated that the governors, who are joint owners of the accounts, were aware of the withdrawals.
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The minister explained that the account has had no accruals in the last four years because of the volatility of the commodity in the international market.
She also added that withdrawals have always been in consultations with NEC.
“The last approval that was given by the council was the withdrawal of $1 billion to enhance security,” she said.
“We have been utilising that — the last tranche of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies is based on the contracts executed and it’s been used strictly for that security purpose.
“So, the utilisation of the account is with the full knowledge of the governors.”
