Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Finance has released the sum of N300 billion of the capital budget for the fourth quarter of 2012. This brings the total capital release for 2012 to N1.01 trillion out of a capital budget of N1.3 trillion for the year. A statement by Paul Nwabuikwu ,personal assistant to the Finance Minister said the release is aimed at ensuring that the momentum on capital budget implementation is maintained as the year comes to a close.The amount released so far represents 75% of the capital budget for 2012.
The impact of budget implementation can be seen in various sectors of the economy. A few examples according to the finance ministry include power supply where Power supply in many parts of the country has improved to a consistent level of 15 hours per day;Rehabilitation of existing power infrastructure has yielded up to 1000 megawatts of additional electricity;NIPP projects are being fast tracked which will lead to an additional 1055 megawatts by end 2012;The prospects for progress in power supply have increased significantly with the imminent conclusion of the privatisation programme
According to the statement another example where there has been huge impact is agriculture where in pursuit of the 3.5 million jobs target by 2015, 13 new private sector rice mills with capacity of 240,000 metric tonnes have been established;One million metric tonnes of dried cassava chips exported to China.
And transport where Railway modernisation programme is progressing with the Abuja-Kaduna line now at 46%;Rehabilitation of Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Ibadan lines has opened up new platforms for passenger traffic;Abuja Light rail project making progress
Also the statement said there is job creation where the Community Services, Women and Youth Employment Programme of SURE-P was launched in February 2012 and already working in 14 states. There is a Target of 370,000 jobs per year;The second edition of the YOUWIN job programme which focuses on women entrepreneurs has been launched by President Goodluck Jonathan. YOUWIN targets 80,000-100,000 jobs over three years.
And lastly, the ministry names ports reform where the clearance time for cargoes in the ports has been reduced from 39 days to seven days.