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FG Supported States With N1.19 Trillion In 2017 – Says Osinbajo

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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday said the federal government supported the 36 States with about N1.19 trillion as at September 2017.

Osinbajo, who disclosed this in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital during the Economic and Investment Summit, said the funds were made available through the Excess Crude Account, Paris Club refunds and loans to enable the states address paucity of funds for execution of programmes and embark on capital expenditures.

The vice president explained that some of the funds were legal entitlements of the states to which they legally had access, while others were loans to be repaid.

The vice president noted that the present administration had the highest capital expenditures in the last two years, owing to the on-going roads construction across the country, railway lines and hydro power projects.

He described the summit as timely, saying it came at the time the country was involving ways to reduce its dependence on oil and increase its non-oil income with the promotion of agriculture and the abundant solid mineral resources in the country.

Osinbajo said that Kogi was strategically located and endowed with vast mineral resources that could make it a hub of production and commercial activities which the summit aimed to achieve.

In his remark, Governor Yahaya Bello said the summit was organised to alter the status of the 27-year old Kogi from “a civil service state to an industrialised one,” stating that his administration had in the last two years prepared the ground for economic and industrial breakthroughs for the state by tackling the problems that had hindered the economic growth of the state.

“We are shedding the toga of a civil service state to an economic and commercially viable one and we want investors to collaborate with us and contribute to the prosperity of the state.

“Kogi state is now open for business, we want to be signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs), I invite the private sector to collaborate with us in our bid to develop the state, Kogi state is ready for serious business,’’ Bello said.

The governor also used the occasion to appeal to Christians, particularly, the Catholic Bishops to plead for forgiveness for disrespecting them.

“To all of my Christian brethren, I apologise for any way in which I have hurt your sensibilities.

“I also pray my August Guest today, His Excellency the Vice President to help convey to our Christian leaders and brethren all over the world that I would never dream of disrespecting them. I hold all faiths in high regard,” he apologised.