The finance minister says the President Buhari-led federal government will not fund every project detailed in the 2016 budget because of scarcity of funds.
Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun
Speaking on Thursday at sectoral debates before the Federal House of Representatives at the National Assembly in Abuja, the Finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, said the Nigerian government will not fund every project detailed in the 2016 budgets because of scarcity of funds and previous failure of agencies to deliver on projects.
She said that due to the scarcity of funds, agencies should not expect to get completely what was appropriated in the 2016 budget, as the government would only release funds based on necessity. “So what we are now doing is project first. Tell us what you are going to do with the money, give us your milestones," she said.
The minister who said government’s priority is to reduce cost of living and create employments for 500,000 Nigerians, added that her ministry discovered that not every agency which got funds for its project in the past took delivery of the project and funds will be released based on priority of projects.
"I can’t promise you that every single agency will receive every single Naira in the budget, that will be untrue and that will be a misleading impression.
"However, what I will assure is that there will be no favouritism, there will be no need for anybody to come and lobby in our office for the release of funds. Funds will be released first on priority of projects, MDAs must make request for the capital and we must measure how the capital is spent," she said.
While speaking on the minimum wage NLC are fighting for, Adeosun says the Buhari-led federal government will rather address cost of living than an increase of minimum wage.
"The issue is not actually about minimum wage, the issue is about cost of living because even if you increase the minimum wage to N100,000 and the cost of living is N120,000 then you have done nothing.
"What we have to address is the cost of living and this government addresses cost of living because it is investing in the things that make cost of living very high for the people such as power cost, transport cost, people spending hours on bad roads, it is being addressed, that is a cost," she said.