FG spends N130b on Boko Haram –Okonjo-Iweala

Federal Government yesterday said that it has so far released the sum of N130.7 billion of the 2014 bugdet to the military between January and April, this year.

Out of this amount, N86.9 billion is for personnel cost.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja, Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said that the military is not captured in the Integrate Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and so the Federal Government disburses the money to them and they pay their salaries.

However, the Minister noted that the military needed an additional N24.8 billion which would be sourced from the president’s contingent funds.

“There were also other requirements they needed and we used Mr President contingent, we are for them as they needed extra N24.8 billion for their additional spending apart from their budgets. We are still processing it,” she said.

Also, the minister said that the late signing of the budget has not hampered the running of the economy because   Section 84 of the Constitution enables government to continue the implementation.

According to her, the constitution empowers the government to spend up to 50 per cent of the budget.

“The late signing has not hampered the running of the economy because what we have in Section 84 of the constitution enables us to continue implementation based on the unsigned budget where we can continue spending up to 50 per cent.  So, we have been able to continue running the country as a result of that. So, the effect of the delayed signing has remained minimal,” she noted.

Explaining the critical policies of the budget, the minister noted:  “On the housing sector, the mortgage refinancing within the economy is designed to support greater liquidity and we have been working so hard to put in place all relevant institutional framework and policies that will support and kick off additional mortgage refinancing in the economy.

In his remarks, the Director General, Budget Office, Dr Bright Okogu, said that said that the approved Medium Term Expenditure framework   has the benchmark of $77.5 per barrel in the 2014 budget while in 2013, it was $79 per barrel.

“Crude oil production was put at 2.388 million barrels per day compared to 2013 which was 2.53 million barrels per day. The production target for 2014 is a bit lower.

Exchange rate was maintained at N160/$US in 2014 same as we had in 2013.

Growth of real GDP is 6.75 per cent in 2014. Aggregate revenue for the entire federation for the three tiers of government before sharing formula will be applied

For 2014, we had aggregate revenue of N10.88 trillion with respect to what everybody will expect.  The share for the Federal government out of this, amounts to N3.73 trillion.

On the expenditure side, the 2014 as passed by the National Assembly comes with a total figure of N4.695 trillion.

In addition, SURE-P has N268.37 billion set aside for the issues relating to SURE-P activities. If you take these two together, it comes to N4.964 trillion in 2014 budget

SHARE