FG releases fresh N160bn for capital projects

The Federal Government on Sunday said it had released N160bn to its Ministries, Department and Agencies for the implementation of fourth 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 Communication, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu.

The fresh N160bn brings the total money released for this year’s capital projects to N1.01tn as the ministry had earlier released N400bn, N200bn and N250bn to the MDAs in the first, second and third quarters, respectively.

The statement further said that N598.4bn of the capital budget, representing 72.3 per cent, had been utilised as of the end of the third quarter of the year.

The N160bn released for the fourth quarter, it added, would bring the total spendable balances to N450bn up until the end of the year.

The statement also said, “Salaries of workers in Federal Government ministries and agencies for October were paid before the 20th of the month, according to a Presidential directive for the convenience and comfort of staff members.”

The  2013 budget is made up  of an aggregate expenditure of N4.987tn, representing an increase of 6.2 per cent over the N4.697tn appropriated for 2012.

This comprises N387.97bn for statutory transfers; N591.76bn for debt service; N2.38tn for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, of which N1.717tn is for the provision for personnel cost; while overhead cost is to gulp N208.9bn.

Similarly, a total of N1.62tn was provided as capital expenditure, in addition to N273.5bn budgeted for the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme.

The gross federally collectible  revenue is projected at N11.34tn, of which the total revenue available for the Federal Government’s budget is N4.1tn.

The Finance minister had in a presentation on the 2013 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 (such as education and health), N705bn; and agriculture/water resources, N175bn.

Punch