President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the ministry of finance, budget and national planning to release N600 billion for capital expenditure in the next three months.
The president gave the directive in his nationwide broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 59th independence anniversary on Tuesday in Abuja.
He stated that the directive was informed by his administration’s desire to significantly increase investments in the national critical infrastructure.
According to him, the implementation of the 2019 capital budget, which was only approved in June 2019, will be accelerated to ensure that critical priority projects are completed or substantially addressed.
He revealed that the Federal Government had so far released N1.74trillion for the execution of various capital projects in the 2018 fiscal year.
“In this regard, we are significantly increasing investments in critical infrastructure. Last year, capital releases only commenced with the approval of the budget in June 2018.
“However, as of 20th June this year, up to N1.74 trillion had been released for capital projects in the 2018 fiscal year,’’ he said.
The president noted that the exchange rate in the last three years had remained stable, with robust reserves of 42.5 billion dollars, up from 23 billion dollars in Oct. 2016.