Nigerian
Senate has summoned the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, and her counterpart
in the Ministry of Budget and Planning, Udo Udoma.
The ministers were
summoned to brief the lawmakers on the cause of the inadequate releases and
steps being taken to expedite release of funds for the capital component of the
2017 Appropriation Act.
This followed a
motion sponsored on Tuesday by the Senator representing Lagos East, Senator
Gbenga Ashafa. The motion was captioned “Inadequate releases in the 2017 budget
and the need to expedite releases in order to stimulate the Economy”. Senator
Ashafa cautioned that inadequate releases from the Federal Government to
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to finance their capital projects
might return the country to recession.
The Senate, on its
Facebook page, quoted Ashafa in his motion as saying: “While the total size of
the 2017 budget tagged as the budget of Economic Recovery and Growth is in the
sum of N7,441,175,486,758 (Seven Trillion, Four Hundred and Forty-One Billion,
One Hundred and Seventy-Five Million, Four Hundred and Eighty-Six Thousand,
Seven Hundred and Fifty-Eight Naira), the capital component of the budget is in
the sum of N2,177,866,775,867 (Two Trillion, One Hundred and Seventy-Seven
Billion, Eight-Hundred and Sixty-Six Million, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five
Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Seven Naira) only, for the year ending on December
31, 2017, according to the Appropriation Act of 2017.”
Senator Ashafa,
however, expressed concern that since the 2017 budget was assented to by
President Muhammadu Buhari in June 2017, only about N310 Billion Naira has been
released by the Federal Government to the MDAs as funding for capital projects,
a figure he said was too low to stimulate the economy.
He noted that the
livelihood of millions of Nigerians is directly connected with the funding of
the budget and execution of projects. The senator explained that the more
projects are executed, the more Nigerians would be engaged at various levels of
the employment value chain, stressing the need for expedited funding of the
capital component of the budget.
Deputy Senate
President, Ike Ekweremadu, who seconded the motion, commended Senator Ashafa
and urged his colleagues to support the motion. The lawmakers then resolved to
invite Mrs Adeosun and Senator Udoma to appear before the Senate in plenary to
brief the Upper House on reasons for the inadequate releases, in accordance to
the prayers of the said motion.
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