Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,195,683 members, 7,959,081 topics. Date: Thursday, 26 September 2024 at 10:26 AM |
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / 2016 Budget: FG Unveils 34 Priority Projects (541 Views)
Sale Of National Assets Needed To Fund 2016 Budget – FG / #2016Budget: FG Unveils 34 Priority Projects / Deleting Priority Projects Of A Govt Is An Economic Crime - Wole Solanke (2) (3) (4)
(1)
2016 Budget: FG Unveils 34 Priority Projects by simongonner: 7:29am On May 05, 2016 |
President Muhammadu Buhari will today
receive the clean copy of the 2016 budget
from the National Assembly, just as the
federal government has unveiled 34 strategic
priority projects for this year.
Speaking to State House correspondents after
the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting
presided over by Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, minister of state for budget and
national planning, Zainab Ahmed, alongside
the minister of information, Lai Mohammed,
minister of state for industry, trade and
investment, Aisha Abubakar, minister of state
for foreign affairs, Khadija Abba Ibrahim,
stated they discussed the strategic
implementation plan for the 2016 budget.
She said: “On the 2016 budget, I must say the
executive and legislature have worked very
hard in putting things together, reviewing the
details of the budget and it is at its final
stage; so maybe between today (Wednesday)
and tomorrow, the National Assembly will
start the process of transmitting the details to
the president.
According to her, the Ministry of Budget and
National Planning presented to council for
discussion priority economic activities that the
administration needs to undertake to ensure
that the purpose for which the 2016 budget
was made, which is to stimulate the economy,
to create jobs for our teeming youths and to
extend support to the poor and very
vulnerable, is realised.
She said the ministry presented 34 strategic
priority programmes that need to be realised
within 2016, noting that each of these
projects programmes has very clear
deliverables and targets and indicators which
will be measured to ensure that the respective
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)
deliver on the desired goals.
Ahmed disclosed that these 34 specific areas
are grouped into four major objectives. The
first is policy, governance and security; the
second is diversification of the economy; the
third is creating support for the poor and the
vulnerable while the fourth is reflecting the
economy through investment.
She stated that the paper was well received by
council and that the 34 priority projects were
approved for implementation.
According to her, the Ministry of Budget and
National Planning has been given
responsibility to track and report the
performance of these key priority areas to the
council on quarterly basis.
She said: “The 34 priority areas that we need
to implement in 2016 are categorized into six
thematic areas. There is policy, governance
and security and one item from that is to
achieve and maintain a capital spend
minimum of 30 per cent on an annual basis
starting from 2016.
“The objective of doing that is to reflect the
economy and enhance employment generation
capacity for the productive sector. Another
area is to achieve an appropriate exchange
regime; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is
leading this particular action. The objective is
to achieve a predictable exchange rate by the
end of 2016.
“There is also a target for us to increase low
interest lending to the real sector. The focus is
to achieve an interest rate that is single digit,
maybe nine per cent, and the purpose is to
increase output and growth. Again the
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment
along with the CBN are taking action on this.
“We also have a target to maintain a stable
debt management strategy so that we can
optimise the local and foreign debts that we
have and the Ministry of Finance and the Debt
Management Office will be taking action on
this.”
On the issue of diversifying the economy, she
said the administration plans to implement
measures to achieve self-sufficiency and
become a net export of certain number of
agricultural produce, the first one being rice.
“We plan to attain self-sufficiency in rice
production by 2018, in tomato paste by 2016
and also increase local production of maize,
soya beans, poultry and livestock. The
deadline for these will be announced later in
the year. The Ministry of Agriculture is still
trying to work out details. It means we will
stop importing and we will get to a point when
we will start exporting.
“We also have plans to expand the agro-allied
sector to intensify local production of
cassava, cocoa, cashew nuts, fruits and
sesame seeds and the Agric Ministry is also
leading in that area.
“There is also plan to make use of 5,000
hectares arable land in 12 River Basin
Development Authorities and to utilise 22
dams for commercial farming by prospective
investors and the objective is to extend
farming so that it can become an all-year
round activity and that there is productivity
all-year round.
She further announced a plan to implement a
road map to increase private sector
investment in tourism and sports “and the
objective is to increase investment in the
service sector thereby increasing job creation
and youth employment.
“The power, rails and road are also very
important priority area. There are a number of
specific activities but one of them is to
optimise up to 7,000 megawatts installed
capacity and to ensure the associated
infrastructure to ensure we transmit and
distribute this capacity in the maximum
operational level that is obtainable, and also
to conclude the privatisation of NIPP plants
and improve management and performance of
TSA (Treasury Single Account). The Ministry of
Power, Works and Housing is leading in this
regard. The target deliverables is to increase
the availability of power, thereby enhancing
investment, productivity and employment and
business growth in our country.
She added that it was also the government’s
priority objective to resolve all issues
concerning gas pricing.
“The availability of gas is very key to the
availability of power to the nation, so gas
pricing is a priority and is currently being
addressed and will be finalised and payment
will be provided to the gas suppliers who are
being owed significant amount of money.
“And also there is plan to conclude the road
map of development, the objective of all of
these is to increase investment, and gas peaks
supply to the oil industry.”
The minister noted the administration’s
commitment to reviving rail transportation in
Nigeria.
She said: “There is also plan to complete the
Kaduna-Abuja-Ajaokuta railway lines in 2016.
We are also revising the National Rail
Masterplan which is commencing construction
of the Lagos-Kano standard Gauge Rail line
and also to finalise the negotiation regarding
the Calabar-Lagos rail line. Of course the
objective of this is to increase availability of
mass transit, to reduce pressure on road
infrastructure. The Federal Ministry of
Transport is leading in this regard working in
collaboration with Ministry of Finance and
Ministry of Budget and Planning to ensure the
required funding is availed for this project.”
She also disclosed plans to rehabilitate and
construct 31 major projects and restore the
degraded sections of some major highways
and improve connectivity over a distance of
210,093 kilometres through public works
maintenance, Public Private Partnership (PPP)
and other interventions.
Ahmed further spoke on the administration’s
plans in the oil sector.
The minister said: The fourth thematic area
which is oil and gas reforms. One of the key
objective is to adopt and execute a
comprehensive national oil and gas policy,
which is supposed to be the road map for the
petroleum industry development diversification
as well as privation and also to adopt and
execute a road map for the stoppage of gas
flaring in our country.
“We are setting a three-year deadline to
achieve self-sufficiency in refined petroleum
products and to become a net exporter of
petroleum products. The objective of this is to
increase domestic supply of refined products
and to reduce demand on foreign exchange for
importing refined products in our country. The
Ministry of Petroleum is pushing this. There is
also a plan to push for the passage of the
Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in conjunction
with the National Assembly.”
She asserted that the administration was
taking measures to improve the country’s poor
status in terms of the ease of doing business.
“We are going to do this by implementing a
number of measures specifically targeted at
fast-tracking business approvals, acquisition
of land titles, and issuance of visas for
persons seeking to come into our country and
do business,” she explained.
“The sixth area is the investment in the lives
of our people by implementing various social
projects covering health, education and the
essence is to bring succour to the poor and
vulnerable to achieve the targets set by the
Social Protection Policy which is currently
under production. Almost every ministry has a
role to play in this.
“On health sector, we plan to rehabilitate
5,000 primary health centres in 5,000 wards in
2016. The objective is to deliver affordable
health care services to Nigerians as close as
possible to their homes.
“Let me emphasis that when we say we want
to move towards a predictable exchange rate
in the country; we are not planning to devalue
the naira. The CBN and the money policy
committee are working on this and will be
concluded and made available to the country
to enable users to be able to predict the
exchange rate at any point in time.”
http://leadership.ng/news/523675/2016-budget-fg-unveils-34-priority-projects |
Re: 2016 Budget: FG Unveils 34 Priority Projects by Mynd44: 7:32am On May 05, 2016 |
(1)
Trump's Deportation Plan Could Slice 2 Percent Off U.S. GDP: Study / #niger Delta Youths And Other Members Are Always Happy With This Sort Of News, M / Buhari's Fight Against Corruption: Wrong Focus?
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 25 |