Due process stalling release of N350 billion, says Minister

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, yesterday  said due process was delaying the release of N350 billion planned to reflate the economy.

Before the 2016 Appropriation Bill was signed, the government had announced its plans to inject the money into the economy.

But, speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Udoma there was need to fast track the process.

With him was Minister of Information Lai Mohammed.

According to him, Nigerians will start to feel the impact of the 2016 Budget from the third quarter of this year.

The minister also disclosed that Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been urged to fast track the processes for the capital budgets to quickly reflate the economy.

He said: “As for the N350 billion,  the money is available but there is a process and this is part of the reasons we briefed council and there is need to fast track those processes so that very soon most of those monies will be released. We expect in the Ministry of Works, they should have quite substantial release in the next week or so.

“It’s easier for us for existing projects but new projects are a bit more difficult because of the public procurement. The public procurement you have to advertise and you have to wait for six weeks and so on. So new projects will take a bit longer.

“But existing projects that have already gone through the public procurement processý will be faster and I believe that you will soon start seeing the impact of those releases.”

On whether no part of the N350 billion has been released, he said: “I didn’t say that but I said you will be seeing a lot more releases.”

Pressed to disclose the level of release, Udoma said: “I think what we will probably do is ýbecause that wasn’t part of what council discussed, so what we will do we will be giving numbers from time to time. So I’m sure within the week we should be able to give you numbers.”

On the recession hinted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the alleged absence of plans to put Nigeria back on the path of growth, he said: “Let me speak on not having a plan. We launched a strategic document, we set out 34 things we want to achieve this year; we set out all our objectives. We have a plan and the plan is to reflate the economy.”

According to Udoma, what has happened to Nigeria is no surprise to the government.

“It is something that we came in to meet; it has been caused by the fall of crude oil prices from over $100 to less than $30 and so we came in to meet that problem.

“The decision that we took to address that problem is to reflate the economy and the budget was aimed to achieve that and that is why you have in the budget a plan to spend a large amount of money on infrastructure but as you know the budget was only recently passed.

“It takes time for the spending to be released and to hit the economy and to begin to see the impact. So we have a plan, we know the situation we are in right now and we have a plan to get out of the situation.”

He added: “It is just that at this particular point in time we expected this trajectory because the releases will only start kicking in so that by the third quarter we will start seeing the impact of what we are doing to reflate the economy.”

The minister said banking and private sectors were advised not to lay off staff because the economy will pick up.

He said: “With regards to the plea to the private sector, it is because we know that by the time the economy picks up, they will need those people again. We know the economy is going to pick up; we are confident about that, that is because of our plan. The plan was conceived because we knew that this was the trajectory we will move into.

“I will give you an indication of some of those things in the plan, for agriculture, for instance, we plan to be self-sufficient in rice within a certain number of years, in wheat within a certain number of years. Indeed the Vice President has just set up a task force headed by the governor of Kebbi State to realise that. So we are implementing the plan one by one.

“We have a plan to move this country up 20 places in the ease of doing business, we are working on that. We want to stimulate the private sector because we know that even the spending by government alone will not be sufficient. We also need to have policies that will encourage the private sector. We do have a plan, it was launched, it was taken to cabinet, approved by cabinet and the minister of state had announced.”

Udoma also denied the speculation of impending sack of workers in para-military organisations.

“That is news to me. I am not aware of any instruction to anybody to sack anybody. In fact the policy of this government, we said so at the beginning that we are not going to retrench. There is a natural wastage which happens in government; there are people who retire, people who may be disciplined but there is no policy in this government to retrench. So I want to disabuse your mind that there is no such policy,” Udoma said.