N1.2trn capital expenditure released in 2019 ― FG

The federal government has so far released the sum of N1.2 trillion for capital expenditure in the 2019 budget, amounting to 50 per cent of the provision.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

She said: “So far as at last week, we have released up to N1. 2 trillion in capital expenditure and that is a 50 per cent performance of the capital for the whole year 2019.”

It was part of her ministry’s assessment report she present to the council.

She said: “The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning reported on its one hundred days performance to Federal Executive Council today. The Ministry of Finance has eleven major mandate areas.

“First of in terms of revenue performance, the revenue performance prorated to the third quarter of 2019 is N4. 25 trillion and that represents a performance of 81 per cent. That is to third-quarter so its nine months prorated, not full year.

“The GDP growth that we planned for 2019 was 3.5 per cent and the third quarter GDP performance was reported as 2.28 per cent.

“On expenditure, we have been able to release all that is required for personnel. So, personnel expenditure is on course, debt service is also on course.

“On the overhead, we have been able to pay eight months overhead for general MDA’s and 11 months overhead for some MDA’s we classify as critical. This includes the security services, the Federal Government Unity Colleges as well as NYSC and Prison rations.

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So, a few agencies that we classify as critical have received 11 months and we are working on the 12-month overhead release for this category of MDA’s.

“Now that Mr President has assented to the 2020 budget which is a major achievement for this government, it is clear that the 2019 budget is also a six-month budget. So we have achieved a fifth per cent capital release for 50 per cent performance of the 2019 budget.

“We have also been able to pass through the National Assembly and the National Assembly has passed the Finance Bill of 2019. I believe that by today or tomorrow, the bill will be conveyed to Mr President for his assent.

“We have started the process of the new long term development plan, we prepared a road map, it is going to be subjected to various stakeholder reviews before we start the actual planning process.”

Also speaking the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva disclosed that the National Assembly will pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIN) by June 2020.

This is according to him was part of the assessment report his ministry presented to the council, noting that his ministry had achieved one of the nine mandates given to it.

Sylva stayed: “The ministry of petroleum had nine mandate areas. Today, we reported to the council that we have achieved at least one of those mandate areas, which is the passage of the deep offshore amendment Act.

“We also reported that work is ongoing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and that hopefully, it will be passed into law by June next year.

“We also reported that next year we will open the gas sector and a lot will happen in the gas sector in Nigeria. Rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery will commence in January and hopefully, 2020 will be a very busy year for the oil industry in Nigeria.”

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi revealed that the ministry will be bringing in diesel locomotives for use on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line.