By Dipo Olowookere
Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, yesterday disclosed that Federal Government will close the 2017 budget with a capital expenditure of N1.5 trillion.
Mrs Adeosun made this disclosure on her official Twitter page on Monday, adding that the figure was higher than what was achieved in the 2016 financial year.
“I am pleased to note that we’re going to close the 2017 budget with capital spending in excess of N1.5 trillion, which is higher than what we achieved in the 2016 budget,” the Minister stated.
However, she did not state what specific projects in the country the huge amount was used to execute.
Even when Business Post sought her audience on this issue, the Minister declined to respond to our enquiry.
Posting further, the Minister said government looks forward to the National Assembly passing the 2018 appropriation bill.
“We’re also looking forward to the passage of the 2018 budget by [the] National Assembly,” she said.
The 2018 budget, presently before the parliament, is expected to be passed today by the Senate, going by the promised it made last week.
According to the documents detailing how the executive plans to spend this year, over N9 trillion would be used to run the country.
The 2018 budget was presented to the parliament in November 2017 by President Muhammadu Buhari for approval.
However, the power tussle between the executive and the legislature has delayed the passage of the appropriation bill.
But the executive is optimistic that the budget would be passed very soon. President Buhari has had series of meeting with leadership of the National Assembly over the issue.
Also in her Twitter post yesterday, the Finance Minister disclosed that government’s management strategy, which is focusing on bringing down borrowing costs, was yielding results.
According to her, “This time last year, the Nigerian government was borrowing at an average cost of about 18 percent, but today, it is 13 percent.”
“We will continue to work very hard on debt service cost,” Mrs Adeosun assured Nigerians.
