FG Spent N1.3trn On Capital Projects In 2016 – Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said that the Buhari administration spent N1.3 trillion on capital projects in 2016, the highest in the history of the country.

Osinbajo disclosed this at a plenary of the 2017 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national conference in Lagos with the theme: “African Business: Penetrating Through Institution Building.”

The sub-theme of the plenary was “Conversations With The Vice-President”, moderated by Miss Zain Asher, a CNN news anchor.

“The Federal Government spent about N1.3 trillion on capital projects in 2016, the highest in the history of the country.

“The power sector reform is also ongoing as it is one of the most important sectors in the country,” Osinbajo said.

Responding to Asher’s questions, Osinbajo said the administration had set a solid foundation for the nation’s economic recovery which, he described, as the most important reform of the administration.

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He said:”We were dealing with a mono-economy  (relying on one major export or natural resource)  and a financial industry that was essentially opaque.

“We have set a foundation of rebuilding the economy, creating the Single Treasury Account (TSA), monitoring government’s spending, modifying the tax system to be more efficient and implementing executive orders.”

ALSO READ:PDP To Osinbajo: Nigerians Want To Know How N1. 3trillion Was Spent

Vanguard reports that the vice-president, said the administration has also cleared what he described as a mess inherited from the previous administration.

On whether poor Nigerians in the rural areas have felt the impact of the reforms, Osinbajo said diversification into agriculture had been embraced in most northern states with a lot of transformation.

“For the economy, we are going to see a tripling in the harvesting of rice, prosperity is returning to some states like Kebbi and Zamfara.

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“The rural areas where the highest level of poverty is experienced, there is a turnaround as the highest number of people who went for 2017 hajj were farmers.

“There is a lot of export of agricultural products, what we need to do is to engage in more value added exports and we have quite a few investors,” Osinbajo told the conference.

He noted that agricultural sector had witnessed hi-tech farming and investments with more people taking to farming.

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