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 exclusively to our correspondent 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.
They are the Lagos-Kano, Calabar-Lagos, Kano-Kaduna, Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Warri, Kaduna-Idu and other rail projects.
In the area of electricity, the sum of
N40bn for service-wide provision has been made to settle reconciled
outstanding bills of government agencies as part of a strategy to revamp
the ailing power sector.
For the housing sector, the sum of N28bn
was allocated in the budget for the Federal Government’s National
Housing Programme nationwide.
The Minister of Budget and National
Planning, Udo Udoma, had during the budget presentation shortly after it
was assented to by Osinbajo, had said the government was concerned
about the number of abandoned projects scattered across the federation.
He added that more targeted releases
would be done to agencies of government for projects that were critical
to the achievement of the ERGP.
Udoma noted that in this year’s budget
alone, funds had been allocated to over 65 roads and bridges and
rehabilitation projects across the six geo-political zones of the
country.
Some of them are N10bn for the
rehabilitation/reconstruction and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway sections I and II in Lagos and Oyo states; N13.19bn for
dualisation of the Kano-Maiduguri road, sections I-V; N10.63bn for the
rehabilitation of Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriageway, sections I–IV;
and N7bn for the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, phases 2A and
2B, including access roads.
There are also budgetary provisions of
N7.12bn for the dualisation of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road; N9.25bn for
the dualisation of the Obajana junction to Benin road, phase two,
sections I–IV; N7.5bn for the rehabilitation of the Onitsha-Enugu dual
carriageway; N7bn for the construction of the Bodo-Bonny road, with a
bridge across the Opobo Channel.
Similarly, the sum of N3.3bn was
budgeted for the rehabilitation of the Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Bokani road;
N3.5bn for the dualisation of the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene Federal
highway lot 1, Odukpani-Itu bridgehead; N1.5bn for the dualisation of
the Kano-Katsina road phase one; and N2.24bn for the dualisation of the
Suleja-Minna road, sections I and II, among others.
Udoma had said, “We can’t be doing the
same thing and expect different results. We have to do targeted releases
by looking at the projects we can easily complete and which are
important.
“We are working on that to make sure that over time, we concentrate our resources so that we have maximum impact.”
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