The
Federal Government on Thursday released a fresh N250bn to Ministries,
Departments and Agencies for the implementation of their third quarter
capital projects captured in the 2013 budget.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, confirmed the release in a statement issued by her
Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu.
The fresh N250bn brings the total
capital releases to N850bn as the ministry had earlier released the sum
of N400bn and another N200bn to the MDAs in the first and second
quarters, respectively.
The statement further stated that so
far, about 71 per cent utilisation rate of the released funds for
capital projects had been attained by the MDAs.
The 2013 budget made a provision for an
aggregate expenditure of N4.987tn, representing an increase of 6.2 per
cent over the N4.697tn appropriated for 2012.
This is made up of N387.97bn for
statutory transfers; N591.76bn for debt service; and N2.38tn for
recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, of which N1.717tn was for personnel
cost, while overhead cost was to gulp N208.9bn.
Similarly, a total of N1.62tn had been
provisioned for capital expenditure, in addition to N273.5bn budgeted
for the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme.
The gross federally collectible revenue
was projected at N11.34tn, of which the total revenue available for the
Federal Government’s budget was N4.1tn.
According to the statement, the prompt
release of fund will ensure further progress in the execution of capital
projects captured in budget 2013 as all the funds released have been
cash-backed.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “The Federal
Ministry of Finance has released the sum of N250bn for capital projects
for the third quarter of the year.
“In line with the priorities set out by
President Goodluck Jonathan, the funds will be deployed to expedite the
execution of key infrastructure, security and social projects captured
in budget 2013. The latest figure means that a total of N850bn has so
far been released for capital projects this year. Also, all the funds
released have been cash-backed.
“Implementation of various capital
projects across the country is ongoing and currently, utilisation of the
released funds for capital projects for this year stands at 71 per
cent.”
The minister had in a presentation on
the budget said the government remained focused on critical economic and
social sectors driven largely by private sector activities.
To achieve this, she had said N497bn was
allocated to key infrastructure, including power, works, transport,
aviation, gas pipelines, and the Federal Capital Territory; human
capital development (i.e. education and health), N705bn; and
agriculture/water resources, N175bn.
She had said, “We recognise that
Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit remains one of the binding constraints
to growth in the economy.
“Therefore, our strategy is to
prioritise infrastructure investments in the budget and also to leverage
additional external financing for infrastructure investments in the
country.
“For example, budget 2013 has some
important infrastructure projects in the transportation sector, such as
the second Niger Bridge.”
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