the Commissioner for Information, Bayelsa State, Mr. Markson Fefegha, said he could not comment offhand because of the technical nature of the matter.

Lagos is not broke – Fashola
Monday, 13 August 2012 07:49 PATRICK ATUANYA

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has debunked insinuations that the state is bankrupt or experiencing cash flow problem. In an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in his office, Fashola added that Lagos was meeting its obligations to all its creditors.

“We are paying our debt, we remain creditworthy, we still borrowed money from the banks recently because we have in this year’s budget borrowing provision to finance the deficit. We’re solvent, clearly. Who would even lend money to an insolvent institution?”

Fashola added that the state government bond which was floated in the former Governor (Tinubu’s) time has been repaid by the current administration before its maturity.

The Fashola administration has, however, floated two bonds (the N50 billion, 5-year, 13 percent series 1 and the N57 billion, 7-year, 10 percent series II) with a provision, that a sinking fund be set up where 15 percent of the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) is paid into the fund, to secure the debt.

“So, categorically, we are solvent and we are paying our debt,” he said.

According to him, Lagos currently has two levels of debt, the local debt and the foreign debt.

With regards the local debt, Fashola said the state is discharging its obligations to its contractors.

There are also loans owed to banks by the state, which Fashola said amounts to about 11 or 12 loans.

“I think about 8 of them will be fully amortised by the end of this year, so that will leave about 4. Of course, we will take a few more before I leave but we won’t leave the next government with a burden beyond what is reasonable,” he said.

For the foreign debt, Fashola said that there are about 16 different components and about 9 or 10 of them are debts taken by the Federal Government on behalf of all the states, for projects like FADAMA, water resources, HIV, prevention.

These are debts contracted by the nation and disaggregated as a responsibility to all states and constitute close to 60 percent to 70 percent of the state’s foreign debt, he said.

Other components of the foreign debt were used to fund the Bus Rapid Transit BRT/Lamata, LMDGP/slum clearance, LAWMA/waste management, and Eko education fund.

Fashola noted that the concessionary nature of the foreign debt makes them an attractive option for the state to utilise in its quest for infrastructure development.

“We’ve built roads in Agege, schools in Badiya, schools in Bariga, in Shomolu and in Gbagada with part of the concessionary foreign loans. We’ve used the same loan to finance the BRT corridor. We’re using it now to extend from Mile 12 to Ikorodu. Ikorodu road was built 40 years ago, it’s still there.

So if we do this you can be sure this asset will stay for another 30 to 40 years. Now the money is deducted at source, from our monthly FAAC meeting. So we don’t even miss it, we don’t know we’re paying.”.

The report called on the Central Bank of Nigeria, Security and Exchange Commission and other financial clearing houses to control the rate at which state government obtained loans.

[size=20pt]Lagos earns N29bn IGR last month, begs FG to pay N13bn debt[/size]

Lagos State Government,yesterday, said it recorded a monthly revenue increase of N29.0 billion in 2012 as against an average of N18.9 billion in 2008, even as it appealed to the Federal Government to urgently pay N13, 373, 919, 675.55 being verified indebtedness it owed pensioners in the state.

Commissioner for Pensions, Establishments and Training, Mrs Florence Oguntuase, at the 2013 ministerial briefing to mark the sixth year anniversary of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration, lamented that the non-payment of the benefits had caused untold hardship to the pensioners and unnecessary burden on the state.

The commissioner explained that the unpaid arrears were Federal Government‘s share of the total benefits of the pensioners, noting that the state had consistently settled its own share.

According to her, “We are appealing to the Federal Government to settle the verified pension indebtedness to the tune of N1, 107,267,537 it owes retired workers of the state government and the N12, 266,652,137 of the workers in the Local Government.

The state government, through the Civil Service Pension Office, has forwarded applications for the arrears to the Federal Government and we hope they will pay the benefits before the pensioners pass on.”

The commissioner said the state had so far paid N18,031,148,931 in pension benefits to no fewer than 3,384 retired workers in the state and that a total of N39,518,948 had so far been remitted to the different Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, by the government as its contribution to workers‘ pension accounts.

[size=20pt]FG Owes Lagos, Ogun State, Billions for Road Repairs[/size]

ACROSS the nation, states are asking the Federal Government to settle the bills for work done on federal roads in their respective territories, just as the Federal Minister responsible for roads announced that the federal road network of 35,000 kilometres requires N921.4 billion to remain motorable. This raises yet again, the need for prompt action on a reform policy for roads in Nigeria to tackle the challenges of funding and management in a truly federal structure.

Lagos State claims the Federal Government owes it N51 billion for works carried out on federal roads in the state. The justification for the claim by Lagos State is that most federal roads in the state are arterial routes, bridges and flyovers. The state had been engaged in a dialogue with Federal Government officials, and verification teams had visited the state to assess the routes. A timely settlement of the claims would therefore enable the state to construct and upgrade more state roads. Lagos also set an example for the nation with the cheery information that 49,742 jobs were created as a result of involving local contractors in the strategic road construction sector.

Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun made the case for his state when the President flew in by helicopter to commission a steel factory in Magboro, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Amosun’s current claim is only an addition to the existing N4.39 billion owed Ogun State by the Federal Government for roads worked on by his predecessor, Gbenga Daniel from 2003-2011. Amosun’s “Standards Roads Programme” included many federal roads passing through major cities of the state. The governor even lamented that the separation of federal and state roads was hampering the effort to attract investors. The federal roads in Ogun State are very important for development because they link the industrial sites in Ikorodu/Mosimi, Agbara Estate, Otta, Ewekoro, Ibese and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway axis.

Bayelsa State could not give specific detail on the report due to its technicality. When contacted by our correspondent, the Commissioner for Information, Bayelsa State, Mr. Markson Fefegha, said he could not comment offhand because of the technical nature of the matter.

“I cannot get the details now. The people to consult are not around.”

unicon25: My oil money is what made lagos what it is""they are owing us""deptors"""biko nyemu ego mu

unicon25: My oil money is what made lagos what it is""they are owing us""deptors"""biko nyemu ego mu