The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Tuesday disclosed that total capital cost released to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the 2017 federal budget totalled N1,580,270,755,084.44

Adeosun made this known through a statement issued by the Director (Information) in her ministry, Hassan Dodo, in Abuja.

She stated that the total capital releases for 2017 was higher than the N1,219,471,747,443.00 total capital releases for 2016.

Giving a breakdown of the releases in 2017, the minister disclosed that Power, Works and Housing got the highest allocation of N523,011,701,723.25 or 33.10 percent of the total capital releases. The sector also received N307,411,749,682.00, representing 25.21 percent or the highest capital budget releases in the preceding year.

Adeosun stated the Defence and Security got the second highest capital releases of N197,596,016,072.02, representing 12.50 percent of the total capital releases for the year, compared to the N77,532,885,729.00, about 6.36 percent of the 2016 capital releases, the sector got.

This is even as the minister confirmed that both Agriculture and Water Resources sectors received a total of N149,485,276,897.37, or 9.46 percent of the federal capital budget releases, an amount lower than the N143,121,925,241.00, representing11.74 percent of capital releases, they got in 2016.

The minister disclosed that Transportation sector got a total of N126,253,042,607.50, accounting for 7.99 percent of the capital releases last year, as against the N171,900,597,013.00, representing 14.10 percent it got in the 2016 capital releases.

According to her, Health and Education together got a total of N98,190,277,285.69, or 6.21 percent in 2017 as against N56,270,030,992.00, representing 4.61 percent of the capital releases that the two sectors received in the preceding year.

Adeosun puts other sectors’ total capital receipts at N485,734,440,498.61, or 30.74 percent of the 2017 total capital releases, as against the N463,234,558,786.00, or 37.99 percent of the total capital releases, disbursed to them in 2016..

The minister stated further that despite the economic challenges in the year under review, government was able to fully cash-back the capital releases, pointing out that the sustained high allocations to key sectors was a reflection of the government’s commitment to infrastructure development in the country.

She also disclosed that government was working assiduosly to attract private capital to complement government’s funding in these key areas.