Presidency releases N350bn for capital projects

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has disclosed that the Federal Government will begin the disbursement of another N350 billion for capital projects next week.

Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun

The Minister, who said this at a media briefing on Friday in Abuja, added that the amount will be cash backed.

According to the Minister, it is part of the N700 billion that have so far been released.

Mrs. Adeosun, also disclosed that Nigeria was in talk with multi lateral institutions to get cheap funds to execute capital projects.

She said: “We said we will borrow the cheap money. We have approvals in that plan from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, AfDB, with interest rate as low as 1.5 per cent and tenors as low as 40 years to intervene in specific areas which includes; agriculture, education,health, rebuilding of the North-east and of course the railway project that are very key to what we are doing.”

It will be recalled that the Federal Government has said it will fund its budget deficit of over N2 trillion through borrowing. In May, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the ambitious 2016 budget of N6.1 trillion in law.

The Finance Minister further said that N60 billion would be released as social intervention funds saying it is part of measures to reflate the economy.

For his part, Director General, Debt Management Office, DMO, Mr. Abrahamn Nwankwo, said $1 billion would be raised from Eurobonds auction before December, 2016, and another $1.1 billion to be injected into the economy, which is already in a recession.

According to the DMO boss, the entire amount would be used for capital projects. Mr. Nwankwo, added that local banks will be part to the vetting process, screening and selection.

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