By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma on Tuesday disclosed that the Federal Government released over N4.33tn in the last three years to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the implementation of capital projects
The Minister stated this at a press conference in Abuja on the activities of his ministry and its parastatals under his leadership since assuming office in November, 2015.
Giving a breakdown of the amount, the minister explained that the Federal Government through the ministry of finance was able to release N1.2tn under the 2016 budget for capital spending.
For the 2017 fiscal period, the minister said the sum of N1.2tn was released while N1.55tn had been released as of May 8 for the capital component of the 2018 budget.
He said the focus on capital projects was based on the need to reflate the economy following the recession that the country witnessed in 2016.
He said, “An important strategy we embarked on in order to exit recession was to seek to reflate the economy.
“This was why we increased the capital budget from 16.1 per cent in 2015 to 30.2 per cent in 2016, 31.7 per cent in 2017, 31.5 per cent in 2018 and 26 per cent in 2019. We are also able to increase our capital releases.”
The minister pointed out that the implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) resulted in the economy exiting recession in the second quarter of 2017 and returning to the path of growth.
He said, “the latest GDP numbers just released by the NBS shows a first quarter growth of 2.01%. This performance in the first quarter 2019 is the strongest first quarter performance since 2015.
” Starting the year with a GDP growth rate of 2.01% is encouraging because the first quarter of the year often records the slowest growth in GDP”, Udoma stressed.
On the thorny issue of January to December budget cycle, the argued that there is no legal requirement for the budget year to run from January to December.
He however pointed out that “a January to December fiscal year is more predictable and would help the private sector and other economic players in planning because most most economic players run a January to December fiscal year”.
