The excess crude account that was $18 billion last month has reduced to $11.22 billion, said the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola.
Babalola also added that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has put the present external reserves at $59.4 billion.

His words: "From figures obtained from CBN, Excess Crude currently stands at USD$11.22b and Foreign Reserve at USD$59.4b."

However, he was silent on the source of the privatization proceeds.

The minister had on June 13, 2008 after the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting said that federal government had decided to remove about $5 billion (N585bn) from the excess crude account to finance the forthcoming state of emergency on the power sector.

He said: "We have unanimously agreed and the decision approved by the FAAC that $5 billion will be taken from the excess crude and put into the power project. This is going to be based on the input that will come from Mr. President.

"Once that is done, the three tiers of government will own a proportionate share according to their share of the revenue formula. Once the assets are privatized, proceeds from it will be shared to all the states and the local government according to their share based on the revenue formula."

Consequently, the National Economic Council June 19 approved the release of N1.2trillion ($10.24billion) from the excess crude account.

From this amount, the NEC resolved that N628.29billion ($5.37billion) be invested in the power sector while N569.79billion ($4.87billion) would be shared by the states and Local Government areas in the country.

According to the decision, the investment in the power sector is in form of equity. The Federal Government equity in the project is 51 percent while the states would have 49percent.

In addition, the Council approved the expected state of emergency on power by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

To this end, it was also decided that the Vice President was to head a committee that is to monitor the investment on power.

The committee also includes Olusegun Agagu of Ondo, Liyel Imoke of Cross River and Danjuma Goje of Gombe state.

Source: The Nation