The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Monday confirmed the release of the sum of N350bn to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government for the implementation of capital projects contained in the 2017 budget.She confirmed the development during a telephone interview.
The 2017 budget, christened: ‘Budget of Recovery and Growth’, was presented to the National Assembly on December 14, 2016, and passed by the lawmakers on May 11, 2017.
The fiscal document, which was signed into law by the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on June 12, 2017, has a total expenditure of N7.44tn, out of which N2.99tn is for
non-debt recurrent spending; N2.36tn for capital expenditure; while debt servicing is to gulp N1.66tn.
Adeosun had on June 6, during the public presentation of the budget, stated that the Finance ministry was ready to release the sum of N350bn for capital projects once the budget was loaded.
The minister, while responding to enquiries by our correspondent on the development, explained that the funds had been released to the various agencies of government.
She said the release of the funds was done in tranches with the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing getting the highest amount of capital releases.
This, according to her, is followed by the ministries of transport, defence, and agriculture and rural development.
She said water resources, interior and health were among the ministries with huge sums of capital releases made to them by the Federal Government.
“Yes, we did it (N350bn capital release) in tranches. Largest allocations were for the PWH (power, works and housing), transport, defence, agric, water resources, interior and health,” Adeosun said.
The 2017 budget, with capital allocation of N2.36tn, is targeted at projects that are aligned with the core execution priorities of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
The capital allocations have been crafted to stimulate activities in critical sectors of the economy that have quick transformative potential such as infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, services, and social development.
For instance, under the 2017 budget, the Federal Government will be embarking on a rail modernisation programme to which N148bn has been allocated as counterpart funds for projects to be financed by China.
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