Nigerian states have drawn from a 300-billion naira ($1.5 billion) emergency fund at the central bank and are asking for more money as they struggle to pay civil service salaries after the oil-price slump. Eighteen states have tapped the intervention fund and more requests are being processed, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said in a statement e-mailed by the presidency on Thursday. Debts worth a total of 574 billion naira have been restructured for 23 states since August, it said. At least half of Nigeria’s 36 states, which rely on monthly federal handouts for the majority of their funding, have been unable to pay bureaucrats’ wages after Brent crude prices fell by half in the past year. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer.