The Presidency has affirmed that Muhammadu Buhari will sign the 2018 Appropriation Bill into law on Wednesday, June 20 at 12:00 p.m.
Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, affirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.
Also, Adesina dismissed the media report that the Wednesday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was cancelled due to the scheduled signing of the budget by the president.
According to him, the FEC meeting will not hold due to the Eid-el-Fitr holidays last Friday and Monday which affected the preparation of council’s memoranda.
Meanwhile, speaking on the budget, Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun disclosed on Tuesday that a total of N1,580,270,755,084.44(One trillion, five hundred and eighty billion, two hundred and seventy million, seventeen 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 2017 budget was signed into law on June 12, 2017, by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in his capacity as acting President while Buhari was on months-long medical vacation in Great Britain.
Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun this known in a statement on Tuesday said the
N1.580 trillion total capital releases for 2017 was remarkably higher than theN1.219 trillion total capital releases for 2016.
“In the 2017 capital releases, Power, Works and Housing received the highest allocation of N523,011,701,723.25 which was 33.10 per cent of the total capital releases.
“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 releases of N197,596,016,072.02(12.50%)in 2017, as against N77,532,885,729.00 (6.36 per cent) total releases the sector received in 2016.
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“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 per cent) of the capital releases in 2016.
Transportation received a total of N126,253,042,607.50 (7.99 percent) of the 2017 capital releases as against the N171,900,597,013.00 (14.10%) in 2016.
“Health and Education together received a total ofN98,190,277,285.69 (6.21 percent) for 2017 as against N56,270,030,992.00 (4.61%) the sectors received in 2016.”
Other sectors received a combined total of N485,734,440,498.61, which was 30.74% of the 2017 capital releases.
In 2016, a total ofN463,234,558,786.00 (37.99 per cent)was disbursed to these sectors.
Adeosun said 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 were a reflection of the Federal Government’s commitment to infrastructure development in the country.
The Minister said the Federal Government was working assiduously to attract private capital to complement government spending in these key areas.
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