By Valentine Amanze
The Federal Government has announced that a total of N1,580,270,755,084.44 (One trillion, five hundred and eighty billion, two hundred and seventy million, seven hundred and fifty-five thousand, eighty-four naira, forty-four kobo) capital cost was released to Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the 2017 federal budget.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The N1,580,270,755,084.44 total capital released for 2017 was remarkably higher than the N1,219,471,747,443.00 total capital released for 2016,” she said.
She explained that in the 2017 capital released, Power, Works and Housing received the highest allocation of N523,011,701,723.25 which was 33.10 per cent of the total capital released.
The minister pointed out that the sector also received the highest releases in the 2016 capital budget, which was a total of N307,411,749,682.00 (25.21 per cent) of the 2016 capital budget.
“Defence and Security received the second highest capital of N197,596,016,072.02 (12.50 per cent) in 2017, as against N77,532,885,729.00 (6.36 per cent) total releases the sector received in 2016.
“Agriculture and Water Resources received a total of N149,485,276,897.37 (9.46%) in 2017. The sector had received N143,121,925,241.00 (11.74%) of the capital releases in 2016. Transportation received a total of N126,253,042,607.50 (7.99%) of the 2017 capital releases as against the N171,900,597,013.00 (14.10%) in 2016.
“Health and Education together received a total of N98,190,277,285.69 (6.21%) for 2017 as against N56,270,030,992.00 (4.61%) the sectors received in 2016,” she said.
Other sectors combined, according to Adeosun, received a total of N485,734,440,498.61, which was 30.74% of the 2017 capital releases.
She said that in 2016, a total of N463,234,558,786.00 (37.99%) was disbursed to these sectors.
According to her, despite the economic challenges in 2017, the Federal Government was able to fully cash-back the capital releases.
She further stressed that the sustained high allocations to key sectors was a reflection of the Federal Government’s commitment to infrastructure development in the country.
The minister said that the Federal Government was working to attract private capital to complement government spending in the key areas.
