Extended 2020 Budget: 30% implementation achieved in January — FG

The federal government says it has achieved 30% implementation of the capital component of the 2020 budget extended to March 31, 2021.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, stated this Monday at an interactive session with the leadership of the National Assembly.

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The minister was at the National Assembly to brief the lawmakers on level of implementation of the extended budget life span.

Earlier, House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, tackled the Finance minister over the reported difficulties being faced by MDAs in accessing released funds.

Gbajabiamila said since it was not a usual thing to extend the life span of a budget, there was a need for them to be shown visible and identifiable results the executive has achieved with the extension granted the capital component of the 2020 budget from December 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

“This special session of the leadership of National Assembly interfacing with you is meant for overseeing the extension because feelers from the various MDAs on the implementation is not all that cheering.

“Many of them have complained to our various committees, difficulties being faced in accessing funds said to have been released by your ministry.

“We want to know the level of performance achieved so far whether it justifies the extension granted or not,” he said.

The minister, in her response, said though as at the end of January this year, only 30% implementation of the extended capital component of the budget was achieved.

She, however, said since all the funds have been released and most of the agencies have accessed them, remarkable percentage implementation will be achieved before March 31st this year.

When the Senate President asked her whether 100% Implementation performance will be achieved or not by the MDAs before the March 31 deadline , she said series of factors will determine that.

“Such factors include all the MDAs accessing the funds that had already been released about three weeks ago, procurement processes and capacity of agencies to utilize the funds within the time frame,” she said.

The minister told the federal lawmakers that as at December 2020, 89% of the capital component of the budget had been achieved from the N1.74 trillion released.