Zainab Ahmed Minister of finance, budget and national planning has disclosed that the federal government has released N1.2 trillion for capital expenditure for the 2019 budget.
This was disclosed to State House correspondents after the federal executive council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential Villa in Abuja.
During the briefing, she said the revenue performance prorated to third quarter of 2019 is N4.25 trillion, representing a performance of 81 percent.
She said “The GDP growth that we planned for 2019 was 3.5 percent and the third quarter GDP performance was reported as 2.28 percent. On expenditure, we have been able to release all that is required for personnel, so personnel expenditure is on course; debt service is also on course.
“On overhead, we have been able to release eight months overhead for general MDA’s and 11 months overhead for some MDA’s we classify as critical. This includes the security services, the Federal Government Unity Colleges as well as NYSC and Prison rations. So, a few agencies that we classify as critical have received 11 months and we are working on the 12-month overhead release for this category of MDA’s.
“So far, as at last week, we have released up to N1. 2 trillion in capital expenditure and that is a 50 percent performance of the capital for the whole year 2019.
“We have also been able to pass through the National Assembly and the National Assembly has passed the Finance Bill of 2019. I believe that by today or tomorrow, the bill will be conveyed to Mr president for his assent.
“We have started the process of the new long term development plan, we prepared a road map, it is going to be subjected to various stakeholder reviews before we start the actual planning process.’’
