Vice President Yemi Osinbajo hinted yesterday that the federal government spent N1.3 trillion on capital projects from the 2016 budget appropriation.
Speaking at the2017 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national conference in Lagos, Osinbajo noted that the figure was the highest sum spent on infrastructure in the history of the country.
“The federal government spent about N1.3 trillion on capital projects in 2016, the highest in the history of the country”, the vice president said, adding that beyond the huge spending on capital project in the past year, “power sector reform is also ongoing as it is one of the most important sectors in the country”.
Speaking at a forum with the sub-title, “Conversations with the Vice-President”, moderated by Zain Asher, a CNN news anchor, Osinbajo enthused that the All Progressives Congress-led administration had set a solid foundation for the nation’s economic recovery, which he described, as the most important reform of the administration.
He said the federal government was “dealing with a mono-economy (relying on one major export or natural resource) and a financial industry that was essentially opaque.
“We have set a foundation of rebuilding the economy, creating the Single Treasury Account (TSA), monitoring government’s spending, modifying the tax system to be more efficient and implementing executive orders”, he stated.
The vice president also noted that the amount spent on capital projects from the 2016 budget was a bit different from that of the minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, assuring that the administration will continue to prioritize infrastructure spending.
Adeosun had disclosed that the total money spent on capital projects is N1.2 trillion.
