Ondo State government has dismissed insinuations that it has received bailout fund from the Federal Government even as it assured workers that they would be paid their salary before the end of the week.

The state Commissioner for Finance, Chief Yele Ogundipe stated this while speaking with journalists in Akure, the state capital on Tuesday.

He said the government was yet to access the said fund, adding, however, that process leading to the bailout fund is ongoing.

He further explained that the Federal Government had earlier directed that states can only access the fund through commercial banks and Ondo State just got an offer letter from a commercial bank on the 3rd of this month.

The commissioner said,” We are currently processing the payment and what the Federal Government has done is to instruct the state to access the funds through the commercial banks.

“We have approved one of the commercial banks like most other states have done and they just gave us an offer letter on Thursday, 3rd of September.

“Of course, we immediately prepared memo for the state executive council’s approval which came on Monday that we should access the loan at the rate specified by the Central Bank which is a single digit rate of 9 per cent”

Ogundipe stated further that government is hopeful that “within the next one week, the N14b will be received,” adding that it is still collating all its papers to be forwarded to the Central bank.

He, however, promised that workers in the state would be paid a month’s salary before the end of this week while the remaining two months arrears would be paid as soon as the bailout fund is accessed.