Senate Summons Adeosun, Udoma Over Inadequate Release Of Funds To Finance Capital Projects
Lekan Paul
Posted On Sep 26, 2017
The Senate, on Tuesday, summoned Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, and Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, over alleged under-funding of Capital component of the 2017 Budget.
The Senate made this call after approving resolutions of a motion sponsored by Senator representing Lagos East, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, titled “Inadequate releases in the 2017 budget and the need to expedite releases in order to stimulate the Economy”.
Ashafa argued that inadequate release of funds to Ministries, Departments and Agencies to finance their capital projects might return the country to recession.
Recall that 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), and 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 the 31st December, 2017, according to the Appropriation Act of 2017.
Speaing further, Senator Ashafa expressed concern that since the 2017 budget was assented to by the President in June 2017, only about N310 Billion Naira has been released by the Federal Government to Ministries, Departments and Agencies as funding for capital projects.
The figure according to the Distinguished Senator is too low to stimulate the economy.
His words: “The livelihood of millions of Nigerians is directly connected with the funding of the budget and execution of projects. Considering that the more projects are executed, the more Nigerians would be engaged at various levels of the employment value chain.”
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu while seconding the motion commended Senator Gbenga Ashafa on the motion and urged his colleagues to support the motion.
