FG Set To Release N350b Capital Allocation

The Federal Government has concluded plans to disburse N350bn to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for implementation of the 2017 budget.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun disclosed this on Monday during a public presentation of the 2017 budget in Abuja.

According to Adeosun, the fund will be released as soon as the budget is uploaded and arrangement has been put in place where the funds would be released to the MDAs.

Recall that the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo signed the N7.4trn 2017 appropriation bill into law last Monday.

President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2016 presented a N7.28 trillion federal government budget for 2017 to a joint session of the National Assembly for approval.

Christened the “Budget of Recovery & Growth”, Mr. Buhari said the budget was higher than the N6.07 trillion 2016 Appropriation by about 19.95 per cent.

Details of the proposed budget showed that the government proposed to spend about N2.243 trillion on capital projects and N2.9 trillion as recurrent expenditure.

The 2017 proposed capital and recurrent expenditures were higher than the N1.8 trillion and N2.65 trillion respectively provided in the 2016 Appropriation, representing about 15.44 ‎and 9.43 per cent respectively.

About N1.66 trillion has been allocated for servicing of domestic debts, for which N1.3 trillion earmarked in the 2016 budget, with foreign debt expected to take about N175.9 billion as against N54.5 billion last year.