Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has waded into the dispute between governors and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over repayment dates for the N614 billion budget support facility extended to 35 states.

This followed a disagreement between the governors and the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, at Thursday’s virtual meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, presided over by the Vice President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

At the meeting, Kayode Fayemi, chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), insisted that his colleagues wanted the loan repayment due in May to be deferred.

But the CBN boss, Emefiele insisted that the states should begin the repayment without future delay especially the monies owed to the banks.

Emefiele said there were challenges arising from delays particularly as it concerned auditing.

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In a statement by Laolu Akande, spokesman of the vice president, said, “the Vice President will be holding a meeting soon with representatives of the State Governors, the Finance Minister and the CBN Governor to resolve the issue raised.”

In 2017, the federal government had extended the conditional facility to states through the CBN to help cushion the impact of dwindling resources and help meet their various obligations.

At the expiration of the two-year grace period for repayment, the deductions were suspended for one year to enable the states to stabilise their finances following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.