What you need to know about SFTAS' grants in Kwara

SFTAS grant is a Programme for Result project that is mandated for all Nigerian states to become Public Financial Management Compliant.

The $750m project is to last for 4years with a total sum of $700m to be disbursed to states through disbursements linked indicators (DLIs) for achievements.

SFTAS acctually commenced in 2018, so there was no way the present administration could have initiated it. However, for the first time, the IVAs (Independent Verification Agents) visited Kwara State last November during which the present administration had to present and defend documents required for assessment before achieving DLIs of $2.5m. Beyond that, however, the state SFTAS Steering Committee headed by the Commissioner for Finance & Planning and her team had to work assiduously to earn additional $2.5m that totalled $5m i.e 1.8bn received on the 30th March for 2018 Assessment.

So it wasn’t an already cooked food eaten by the present administration, as some persons have erroneously called it.

In the 2020 Revised Budget, the SFTAS grant was revised from N2.318bn to N4.824bn to accommodate not just the 2018 achievement of N1.8bn but also the likely achievements as listed in explanatory notes for 2019 and 2020 Additional Financing (FGN COVID response to states).

For avoidance of doubt, achievements for 2018 Assessment conducted in November 2019 were based on the following yardsticks:

1. Biometric Registration to detect payroll fraud (DLI 5.1 & 5.2 ) = $500,000 each = $1m

2. Public Debt law and fiscal responsibility framework (DLI 7.1 & 7.2) -  $2m and $500,000 respectively; and

3. Improved Debt sustainability (DLI 9) = $1.5m

Total = $5m

Please note that the Public Debt Law of $2m is a one-off grant.  This means it would not be part of the future SFTAS grant to Kwara or any other state in the country that has earned it before.

The new administration has indeed done much more to ensure that more money comes to the state for the 2019 & 2020 SFTAS grants. For instance, the administration has added citizens' input in the budget preparation and online publication of citizens' budget, among other activities that would earn the state other DLIs that were not achieved in the 2018 Assessment.

The explanations above became necessary in view of the misinformation earlier put out by some persons to achieve a sinister motive.

Oyeyemi Olasumbo Florence
Hon. Commissioner for Finance & Planning
August 3rd, 2020.