Budget 2017: Lawmakers Worried Over Poor Capital Releases

The lawmakers are concerned that the capital releases have been poor at best, while the president is set to lay the 2018 estimates before the National Assembly
You see, Nigeria has 7.441 trillion naira to its 2017 budget.

Of this projected sum, only about 2.2 trillion naira has been dedicated for capital expenditure which includes funds for roads, health facilities, education and power.

Of that sum 336 billion naira has been released representing 15.22% of amount spent on capital expenditure.

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Meanwhile, there are only 67 days left in 2017. This situation has left lawmakers worried in the lower chamber of Nigeria’s parliament, the House Of Representatives.

The lawmakers are concerned that the capital releases have been poor at best, while President Muhammadu Buhari is even set to lay the 2018 estimates before the National Assembly.

Lawmakers, who were said to have become impatient with the development, on Sunday described the release of 336 billion out of 2.2 trillion naira as “no budget at all.”

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The Punch newspaper reports that the issue was a topic on the agenda of a meeting held by some principal officers of the House in Abuja last Wednesday.

One senior official of the legislature was quoted as saying that, “the money made available is not encouraging. The pattern of spending on recurrent and leaving out capital projects is still continuing.

“Yes, it is true that the budget was signed into law in June, but the capital releases should have improved to at least 800 billion by now.”