The Federal Government on Thursday released fresh N300bn to its ministries, departments and agencies for the implementation of various capital projects contained in the 2012 budget.
The fresh N300bn, which is for the fourth quarter, brings the total capital vote released by the Ministry of Finance for 2012 to N1.01tn.
This represents 75 per cent of the N1.5tn capital vote for the year.
The development was confirmed by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, through a statement issued by her Senior Special Assistant (Communications), Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu.
The development came on the heels of accusations by the National Assembly that officials of the Finance ministry were frustrating the implementation of the 2012 budget.
Members of the House of Representatives had asked President Goodluck Jonathan to achieve 100 per cent implementation of the budget before September 18, or face impeachment proceedings.
Before resolving to issue an ultimatum to the President, the House had in its July 19 sitting condemned the poor implementation of the 2012 budget, lamenting that as of July, the budget had achieved a mere 34 per cent performance.
But Okonjo-Iweala said in the statement that so far, the Federal Government had recorded significant progress in key sectors of the economy through the budget.
Some of the areas of progress, according to her, are improved power supply, new rail corridors and new rice mills.
The minister said in the statement, “To ensure that the momentum on capital budget implementation is maintained as the year comes to a close, the Federal Ministry of Finance has released the sum of N300bn of the capital budget for the fourth quarter of 2012.
“This brings the total capital release for 2012 to N1.01tn out of a capital budget of N1.3tn for the year. The amount released so far represents 75 per cent of the capital budget for 2012.”
On the impact of the budget on key sectors of the economy, she said, “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 1,000 megawatts of additional electricity. The National Integrated Power Projects are being fast tracked, which will lead to additional 1,055 MW by the end of 2012
“The prospects for progress in power supply have increased significantly with the imminent conclusion of the privatisation programme.”
On agriculture, it said that in pursuit of the 3.5 million jobs target by 2015, 13 new private sector rice mills with capacity of 240,000 metric tonnes had been established.
Okonjo-Iweala added that one million metric tonnes of dried cassava chips had already been exported to China.
For the transport sector, she said “The railway modernisation programme is progressing with the Abuja-Kaduna line now at 46 per cent.
“Rehabilitation of the Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Ibadan lines has opened up new platforms for passenger traffic, and the Abuja Light rail project is making progress.”
The statement added that in the area of job creation, the fiscal incentives had created jobs through various community services, and women and youth employment programmes expected to create about 370,000 jobs each year.
On ports reform, it said, “The clearance time for cargoes in the ports has been reduced from 39 days to seven days.”
The minister had on August 16, while briefing journalists on the implementation rate of the budget, said transparency and prudence remained the key priorities of the Federal Government in the management of budgets.
She had expressed satisfaction with the performance of the budget, which she said was not surprising because last year’s budget was extended till March 31 this year.
For instance, she said that as of June, only 56 per cent of the N404bn that was released at that time had been utilised by the MDAs.
This, she noted, had increased to 65.4 per cent as at the end of July.
Okonjo-Iweala said that the ministry had observed a remarkable increase in the utilisation rate of the capital votes of MDAs and that with the new releases; Nigerians would begin to see a remarkable improvement in the implementation of capital projects.
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