The minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmad, has presented the sum of N130bn to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for the construction of roads across the six geopolitical zones and the FCT.
Speaking during the presentation yesterday, the minister said N110bn would be given to Works and Housing while N20bn would go to the FCT.
She said the government has been able to finance critical infrastructure through the instrument of SUKUK and invested N612.5bn of money generated on 79 roads cutting across over 2,000 kilometres from 2017 to 2021.
“This fund has been used to construct and rehabilitate key economic roads and projects in the six geopolitical zones and the FCT. The two ministries will be sharing the 2022 issued proceeds of N130bn which was successfully issued by the Debt Management Office (DMO) on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria,” she said.
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She added that the money was released as part of the capital expenditure of the 2022 Appropriation Act which has been extended by the national assembly.
She disclosed that as of November 2022, it has released N1.88tr for capital expenditure from the N2.77tr of MDAs capital expenditure during the year.
On her part, the Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha, said the government has issued five Sovereign Sukuk to the tune of N742.56bn.
“The DMO has demonstrated its strong alignment with the policies of President Buhari on infrastructural development. The DMO has positioned itself not only as an agency to manage public debt but also as a very active stakeholder in the domestic capital market through innovation, investor engagement and collaboration with other stakeholders and these initiatives have deepened the market as there are many new products with different tenors that have created benchmarks for other borrowers,” Oniha said.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the present administration has been able to fund road infrastructure that has led to the creation of jobs in the country.
He added that the completion of some of the roads funded with SUKUK has cut the time travellers spend on roads across the country.
By Faruk Shuaibu & Philip Shimnom Clement
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