Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma has said in Abuja that the federal government plans to sell parts of its holding in oil companies. He said that President Mohammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate action to restructure the Joint Venture Oil Assets so as to reduce government shareholding to 40 per cent and that this exercise must be completed within the first half of 2019 fiscal year. The government he said has also authorised the Ministry of Finance to sell off all property recovered so far from corrupt politicians and civil servants. He said that government is considering selling its holding in joint venture with oil companies to raise funds to finance the budget. According to him Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with all the relevant agencies of the federal government, has been authorised to liquidate all recovered, unencumbered assets within the first half of 2019.
Edo Udoma said that the Department of Petroleum Resource has been mandated to complete the collection of past-due oil license and royalty charges, within three months. He also said that other revenue generating initiatives, Mr. President has directed that work should be immediately concluded on the deployment of the National Trade Window and other technologies to enhance Customs collections efficiency from the current 64 percent to up to 90 percent over the next few years,” he said. Capital releases for the implementation of the 2018 budget would hit the N1 trillion threshold at the end of this year. Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said this at the 2019 Budget breakdown in Abuja. She said that the N820 billion reported capital releases captured only those of the Ministries, Departments and parastatals (MDAs) and that the figure would be higher if capital components of transfers to statutory organisations are captured.
She said “Let me say that the 820bn that has been released is just MDA capital because we have releases also that go to the statutory transfer agencies that is released to them in block and that amount includes both their personal recurrent as well as capital. “There are also capital releases that are done as part of the capital supplementation that is to say, it’s service wide that is not in the 820billion. We are working to push this to N1.1trillion by the end of December and that would be including the statutory transfers, the service wide, as well as, the rest of the MDAs whose capital we are currently processing.” The minister disclosed that the government would introduce new taxes next year, as part of its efforts to boost revenue.’’
Meanwhile, the overall budget deficit of N1.859 trillion contained in the 2019 represents 1.33 per cent of GDP. Udoma said that the projected deficit was within threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007 The budget deficit is to be financed mainly by borrowing N1.649 trillion. Recurrent (non-debt) spending expected to rise by 34.17%, from N3.52 trillion in the 2018 budget to N4.72 trillion. The minister said that it was a reflection of increases in salaries & pensions including provisions for implementation of a new minimum wage. At N2.14 trillion, debt service is 24.24% of planned spending, with provision to retire maturing bond to local contractors decreased by 36.84% from N190 billion in FY2018 to N120 billion. The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing was allocated the highest capital vote of N408. 03 billion, followed by Transport which got N194. 24 billion. The third was Defence with N158 . 12 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development N80.29 billion; Water Resources N73.58 billion; and Industry, Trade and Investment with N61.07 billion.
About N280.44 billion for the construction and rehabilitation of roads in every geo-political zone of the country, such as: Counterpart Funding for the Dualization of Makurdi – Enugu Road; Counterpart Funding for the Dualization of Akwanga – Jos – Bauchi – Gombe Road; Reconstruction of the Outstanding Sections of Benin – Ofosu – Ore – Ajebandele – Shagamu Expressway; and Construction of Bodo – Bonny Road. Other major works projection under this provision were: Pavement Strengthening and Asphalt Overlay of Ajebandele – Ijebu Ode – Shagamu Road; Construction of Oju/Loko – Oweto Bridge to link Loko and Oweto; Dualization of Ilorin – Jebba – Mokwa/Bokani Junction Road; Kano – Maiduguri Road (Various Sections) ; Abuja – Lokoja Road (Various Sections); Dualization of Obajana Junction to Benin (Various Sections); and Lagos – Shagamu – Ibadan Dual Carriageway. Also captured were: Early Works for the Construction of 2nd Niger Bridge in Anambra/Delta States; Construction of Kaduna Eastern By-pass; Abuja – Kano Dual Carriageway; and Dualization of Odukpani – Itu – Ikot Ekpene Road
According to the budget breakdown, another N280.44 billionwas provided for the construction and rehabilitation of several other roads including: Construction of Kano Western Bye Pass; Abuja – Abaji ; Suleja – Minna Road; Rehabilitation & Expansion of Lagos – Badagry Expressway; Rehabilitation of Vandeikya – Obudu – Obudu Cattle Ranch Road; Rehabilitation of Ilorin – Kabba – Obajana Road In Kwara/Kogi; Reconstruction of Nasarawa – Loko Road; Dualisation of Sapele – Ewu Road (various sections); Reconstruction of Bida – Lambata Road in Niger State; Rehabilitation of Ikorodu – Shagamu Road; Rehabilitation of 9th Mile – Orokam Road In Enugu State; Re-construction of Sokoto – Tambuwal – Jega – Kontagora – Makera ; Design and Construction of Bridge Across the Cross River at Uwana (Ebony State) to Nkomoro (Cross River State); and Construction of Road Falali, Birni, Bako to Furoja Town (Ningilga).
