The Federal Government has revealed that a total capital cost of N1,580,270,755,084.44 trillion was released to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the 2017 federal budget.
This, according to a statement by the Director of Information of the Ministry, Hassan Dodo was made known by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the Minister, the said total capital releases of N1,580,270,755,084.44 trillion for the preceding year was higher than the N1,219,471,747,443.00 trillion released for 2016.
“In the 2017 capital releases, Power, Works and Housing received the highest allocation of N523,011,701,723.25 trillion which was 33.10% 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 billion (25.21%) 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%) total releases the sector received in 2016.
“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%) of the capital releases in 2016. Transportation received a total of N126,253,042,607.50 (7.99%) of the 2017 capital releases as against the N171,900,597,013.00 (14.10%) in 2016.
“Health and Education together received a total of N98,190,277,285.69 (6.21%) for 2017 as against N56,270,030,992.00 (4.61%) the sectors received in 2016.
“Other sectors combined received a total of N485,734,440,498.61, which was 30.74% of the 2017 capital releases. In 2016, a total of N463,234,558,786.00 (37.99%) was disbursed to these sectors,” Adeosun stated.
She said that despite the economic challenges in 2017, the Federal Government was able to fully cash-back the capital releases, stressing that “the sustained high allocations to key sectors was 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.
