The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has put total capital releases to federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the 2016 budget at N1 trillion.
The figure, the finance minister said, represented the highest ever budgetary releases in the nation’s annual funding for capital projects. “So far, N1trillion has been released on capital and this is the highest so far in the history of this country. With the current stability in oil price and the return of normalcy in Niger Delta, I am sure we will do more this year (2017),” she said.
However, the minister was silent on how much of the N1 trillion has been cash-backed.According to a statement released by the Director (Information), Mr. Salisu Na’inna Dambatta, the minister disclosed the figure in an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives Tactical Committee on Recession in her office in Abuja.
The statement noted that the amount was released for various projects, including the commencement of the construction of a dual standard railway line that would link Lagos and Kano, rehabilitation of roads, expanding irrigation facilities to boost agriculture and the upgrading of aviation infrastructure nationwide.
She said the components of the releases included aggregate releases to the MDAs of N870, 055,792, 283.00 billion as at the end of February 2017 and additional releases of N65,393,920,000.
