TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says all the federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have received at least 50 percent of their 2020 capital expenditure budget.

Speaking at the presentation of the N13.09 trillion 2021 budget estimates to a joint session of the national assembly on Thursday, Buhari said a sum of N1.2 trillion has been released for capital projects as of September 15, 2020.

The sum of N2.47 trillion was earmarked for capital expenditure in the revised 2020 budget.

The budget was reworked by the national assembly following the outbreak of COVID-19 which affected the price of crude oil which forms a bulk of Nigeria’s revenue.

The president said despite the economical challenges confronting the federal government, it has been able to meet its obligations of debt servicing and payment of workers’ salaries.

“On the expenditure side, as of July 2020, a total of N5.37 trillion had been spent against the pro-rated expenditure of N5.82 trillion. Accordingly, the deficit was N3.27 trillion. This represents 66 percent of the revised budgeted deficit for the full year,” he said.

“Despite these challenges, we met our debt service obligations. We are also up to date on the payment of statutory transfers and staff salaries, while overhead costs have been significantly covered.

“For the first time in recent years, we commenced the implementation of this year’s capital budget in the first quarter. As at 15th September 2020, a total of about N1.2 trillion had been released for capital projects.

“Every federal MDA has received at least 50 percent of its 2020 capital expenditure budget, in line with my earlier directives.”

Buhari said his administration has executed a number of “priority projects” within one year.

“I am happy to report that much progress has been made on several fronts and our government has delivered on key policies, programmes and projects in these priority areas,” the president said.

“In agriculture, we have recorded appreciable success in rice and other crops mainly through the Anchor Borrowers Programme and the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, anchored by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, respectively.

“We are also accelerating the construction of 337 rural roads around key agricultural corridors to enhance access to market and reduce post-harvest losses. These efforts have reduced the adverse impact of Coronavirus on our food availability, prices and security.

“We have made progress on the railway projects connecting different parts of the country. The Lagos-Ibadan Line will soon be operational. The Abuja-Kaduna Line is running efficiently. The Itakpe-Ajaokuta Line was finally completed after over 30 years since it was initiated and commissioned in September 2020.”