The federal government has announced the release of N700 billion for capital projects to reflate economy a day after holding an anti-recession retreat for government stakeholders in Abuja on Thursday, September 15.
Premium Times reports that the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun confirmed at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, September 16 that the monies were released since May when the 2016 fiscal appropriation was passed.
Kemi Adeosun says government has released funds to battle recession
The monies are meant for capital projects in key sectors of the economy such as power, works and housing, interior, transport, agriculture and defence.
Adeosun said another N350 billion will be released at the end of the cash planning meeting on Friday to enter into the accounts of the various ministries, departments and agencies’ (MDAs).
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Some N60 billion would be released for social intervention programmes, including school feeding programme and teachers’ assistants scheme designed to put money into the pockets of Nigerians, Premium Times reports.
“This will take our total capital spend to over N700 billion,” she said. “We are funding the rehabilitation of abandoned airport projects. Significant funding is going into agriculture, because of the time sensitivity of the sector.
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“Government had to intervene to ensure food production was restored to bring down rising food prices. A lot has gone in for defence, because we needed to rebuild and retool the capabilities of our army, to continue with the efforts in the North East part of the country,” Mrs. Adeosun explained.
She added: “We are working with the ministries to try to speed things up. We are working with the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) to see how to fast track the process of contracts so the delays could be removed, so that monies could trickle down into the pockets of Nigerians.
“We have strategic plans to take us out of recession. We want to ensure the recession is as short as possible. We don’t want to prolong the recession. We think some of the initiatives we are working on will begin to bear fruits. Already there are activities resuming on roads, power, health, solid minerals, water resources,” she said.
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