The federal government says it wants to create a N500 billion crisis intervention fund to help contain the rising cases of coronavirus across the country.

This disclosure was made by the Minister of Finance,  Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, during a meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly in Abuja Saturday.

 presented an executive proposal to during a meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on Saturday.

Presented in an executive proposal to “establish a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund” “establish a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund”  Ahmed said the fund will involve mopping up resources from various special accounts of  the government.

Ahmed said, in addition to the identified special accounts from where the money will be drawn as loans, the proposed intervention fund was also expected to be sourced from grants being expected and loans from multilateral institutions, she said.

“Our general view is that this crisis intervention fund is to be utilised to upgrade healthcare facilities as earlier identified.

“The Federal Government also needs to be in a position to improve health care facilities not only in the states but to provide intervention to the states,” she said.

Ms Ahmed said that the fund, if approved, will take care of special Public Work Programmes currently being implemented by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

While she stressed the need for lawmakers to approve the taking of loans from these special accounts, she assured that the team will return “with a proposed bill in that regard that will define what the fund will be used for.”

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, said the loan request was critical because the country is in an emergency and that time was of essence.

“So, we must work as expeditiously as possible to ensure that we place the request before the National Assembly.

“I think time has come for us to redefine the implementation of the Social Intervention Programme, probably going out to communities to give them N20,000 per person might not be the best way to go. It is still an effort, but I think we need a better approach that will be more efficient”, Lawan said.