Roads, bridges – N124bn
Grazing Reserves – N940m
Housing – N35.6bn
Power – N9.2bn
By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
The federal government yesterday announced plan to start the gradual release of the sum of N350billion for capital projects contained in the 2016 budget today, Minister for Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma has said.
The minister who made the disclosure at the 2016 Budget public presentation at the State House in Abuja, said, upon release by the Ministry of Finance, the fund would be made available to finance projects that are ready for execution.
“We are ready to kick-start the implementation of the budget and by tomorrow (Friday), some releases will be made for capital projects that are ready for execution,” Udoma said.
He clarified that it was not possible for all the N350billion to be released at a go, because not all the projects would be ready for execution, assuring however that government would quicken the process for the execution of the projects.
The minister explained that government would heavily invest in infrastructure, saying huge funds have been made available for over 40 road and bridge projects spread across the federation.
He listed the projects and the amount to include; N13billion for dualization of Kano-Maiduguri road, N8.7billion for reconstruction and pavement strengthening of the Benin-Sagamu expressway and N14.2billion for the construction of Oju/Loko Oweto bridge.
Others are N13billion for concession of second Niger Bridge, N6billion for dualization of Ofukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene road in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states and N8.8billion for rehabilitation of Sokoto-Tambuwal Kotangora road.
And in the housing sector, Udoma said a total sum of N35.6billion was approved for the construction of 1,973 blocks of 7,069 housing units in six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory.
In the agriculture sector, Udoma stated that in pursuit of the nation’s self sufficiency and food security programme, several projects would be implemented. These include the rehabilitation of rural roads at a cost of N1.3billion, support to 187,500 farmers at a cost of N1.3billion and N940 million for development of strategic grazing reserves.
For the diversification of the economy, the minister said government would implement measures to achieve self sufficiency and become net exporter of rice by 2018, tomato paste by 2016 and wheat by 2019.
Also, the sum of N500 million is set aside for social protection, while in the area of job creation, 500, 000 teachers and 100,000 artisans would be trained at a cost of N191.5billion. Speaking on the school feeding programme, the minister said 5.5 million children would be fed 200 school days at a cost of N93.1billion and N5, 000 a month conditional cash transfer for one million beneficiaries at a total cost of N68.7billion.
Similarly, enterprise programmes to support one million market women, 460,000 artisans and 200,000 agriculture workers at a cost of N140.3billion; education grant for 100,000 students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at a cost of N5.8billion, were also scheduled for action.
“We will revitalize and expand agro allied processing to intensify local production and processing of cassava, cocoa, cashew, fruits and sesame seed.
“We are going to adopt and implement a roadmap to stimulate investment into the solid minerals sector and plug revenue leakages in the sector and also implement that National Industrial Revolution Plan and launch the ‘made in Nigeria’ campaign,” he added.
The minister further stressed the need to ensure speedy release of the fund for capital projects, saying this became imperative in order to stimulate economic activities and reposition the economy to the path of growth.
According to him, government had put in place a strategic plan to ensure that the budget does not suffer any implementation challenge, assuring that despite its late passage, the budget would be implemented for one full year, ending May 2017.
He expressed government’s desire to ensure the budget process is completed before the beginning of each year, pointing out that in order to achieve that, the ministry had started working on the 2017 budget.
Udoma said the ministry would involve in wider consultations with all stakeholders during the subsequent budget preparation process in order to guide against budget delays.
On the performance of the 2015 budget, the minister said out of the total sum of N5.06trn budgeted, about N4.76trn or 94 per cent was spent as at the end of December 2015.
