The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Tuesday said that the Federal Government spent a total of N1.80 trillion on capital projects in the 2020 fiscal year,
The Minister, who made this disclosure on during the public presentation of the 2021 approved budget at the virtual presentation said the amount spent on capital projects for the fiscal year, represented about 89 percent of the capital budget provisions.
According to her, out of the N1.8 trillion spent on capital projects, the sum of N118.37 billion was released for COVID-19 related capital expenditures.
The minister explained that though the total approved budget in fiscal year 2020 stood at N9.97 trillion, government actually spent about N10.08 trillion, representing about N11 billion higher than the projection.
On the revenues that accrued to the federal government coffers last year, the minister said that at the year end, FGN’s retained revenue was N3.94 trillion, representing 73 percent of target.
Ahmed, in her further analysis of the expenditures in the fiscal year, said government spent N3.27 trillion on debt servicing, while a total sum of N3.19 trillion was spent on payment of salaries and pensions.
On the projected capital projects in the current year, particularly road construction, the minister said over N168 billion would be expended on construction and rehabilitation of roads in every geo-political zone nationwide.
She listed some of the roads that would benefit from the funds as including, dualization of Makurdi – Enugu Road; dualization of Akwanga – Jos – Bauchi – Gombe Road; reconstruction of the outstanding sections of Benin – Ofosu – Ore – Ajebandele – Shagamu expressway; and construction of Bodo – Bonny Road as well as rehabilitation of Yola-Hong-Mubi Road, amongst others.
