The Federal Government has released N1.248 trillion for capital projects, with power, works, housing and transport sectors gulping N429.7b
According to Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, this brings the aggregate savings by the government on personnel cost, since 2001 to N288 billion. She said: “The final update I gave was the level of capital releases till date from 2017 and l gave details of the big four areas and then others.
She said: “So, Power, Works and Housing got N301.89 billion, Defence 151.2 billion, Agriculture N119.9 billion, Transport N127.9 billion and other areas combined is N545.6 billion. So, the total capital budget release for 2017 so far is N1.248,310 trillion.
“We haven’t closed yet. We are confident we will close the year roughly around where we closed last year. We will close around N1.3 trillion mark. So, our commitment to infrastructure spending remains very strong. That is what is going to drive growth of the economy. That is what is going to drive jobs.”
Govt saves N68bn on personnel cost, captures 511 MDAs under IPPIS On the saving of N68 billion on personnel cost, Adeosun explained that the savings were funds that would have otherwise gone unaccounted for, which she added, were now free for the government to fund capital projects.
She said the savings were achieved, despite increase in personnel, including the employment of 10,000 by the Police. The minister confirmed that a total of 511 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, had been captured under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, with staff count of 607,843.
“As at March 20, 2018 the number of MDAs on IPPIS Payroll is 469 with 316,158 staff count with gross salary of N43,979,383,997.78 and 42 Police commands and formations paid on IPPIS platform in February, 2018 with Staff Count of 291,685 and gross salary of N22,276,669,257.21.
Adeosun, who addressed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting, presided over by Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria, also said the government had saved N68 billion on personnel cost in 2017.
