By Levinus Nwabughiogu
At least, 28 States of the federation have received different sums from a total of N373.56 billion as part of the bailout package from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Salary Bailout Intervention Facility.

The benefit from the facility spanned between August 2015 and January 2016.

The disclosure was fallout of a paper presented by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma at the just concluded two-day retreat of the National Economic Council, NEC held at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Vanguard investigations revealed that some of the states included Kwara, Zamfara, Osun, Niger, Bauchi, Gombe, Abia, Adamawa, Ondo, and Kebbi.

Others were Ekiti, Imo, Ebonyi, Ogun, Plateau, Nassarawa, Sokoto, Edo and Oyo States.

The paper titled ‘Strategic Implementation Plan for the 2016 Budget of Change’ also disclosed that government has restructured the bank loans of 23 states totaling N575.52 billion into 20 years Federal government of Nigeria, FGN, bonds.

Udoma added that the external reserves had also been reduced from $37.5 billion in June 2014 to $27.8 billion as at mid-March, 2016, stating that the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, was less than 5 percent compared to 17 percent in other emerging markets.

He stated that the 2016 Budget which has more emphasis on social infrastructural development would rebound the economy.

“Most of the policies, programmes and projects will need the support of state governments for effective implementation”, he said