FG spends N30.5bn in four months to fight COVID-19

The Federal Government has said it spent N30.5 billion in response to COVID-19 between April and July 2020.

This is in response to a letter by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) which asked the government to provide a breakdown of how it spent the N36.3 billion donations and fund received to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, N30.5 billion was spent within the said date and it represents 84 per cent of the total sum.

A further breakdown of the expenditure reveals that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 spent N22 billion while the 36 states spent a total of N7 billion.

Others include the Nigerian Air Force which spent N877 million for the deployment of assets in support of COVID-19 operations; the Nigeria Police Force spent N500 million on Personal Protective Equipment while about N18,000 was paid as bank charges.

But SERAP alleged that the document submitted does not contain other significant details as indicated in their Freedom of Information request, including details and breakdown of the number of Nigerians who directly or indirectly have benefited from the spending, and details on plans to spend the balance of N5.9 billion in the COVID-19 eradication support accounts.