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2013 budget: Capital releases hit N850bn

By on August 24, 2013

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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