The Federal Government of Nigeria said it has released N280bn to over 50 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), mainly for the completion of ongoing capital projects captured in the 2016 budget. This funding is expected to revive abandoned and uncompleted capital projects across the nation.
The N280bn released is part of the N350bn earmarked for capital projects in the 2016 budget. The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, reportedly made the disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday. She said about 60 MDAs received the money for their capital projects’ funding after they have been reviewed and approved. Zainab also added that 30 more MDAs will receive funding by Wednesday at the latest.
“As I said earlier on, the release will be done for specific projects. Our concentration was on projects that are ongoing, except for a few exceptional circumstances; we are not releasing funds for any new projects.”
“We have reviewed their projects, approved them and have sent them to the Ministry of Finance.”
“There are about 60 MDAs already in the first batch. We have another batch of about 30 where the screening process had been concluded and we should be able to send that today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday),” Zainab said.
The Minister also listed 6 ministries that will benefit from the capital projects fund released. The ministries include;
- Ministry of Works, Housing and Power,
- Ministry of Agriculture
- Ministry of Interior
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Information & Culture
- Ministry of Environment
Last month, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, said that out of about 30 percent budgeted for capital expenditure last year, only about 11 percent was spent due to cash crunch. This was attributed to the Federal Government’s failure to achieve projected oil production levels due to the destruction of oil pipelines, fall in price of crude, oil theft, amongst other things.
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