By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

THE Federal Ministry of Finance has released the sum of N200 billion as capital for the third quarter of 2014.

With this release, the Federal Ministry of Finance has thus disbursed N600 billion for capital projects for the first three quarters of the year. The capital vote for the first quarter was released in February, the second in June, therefore leaving the last quarter allocation outstanding.

Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu said in a statement that the funds would help ensure further progress in the execution of capital projects across the country, adding that the release, “signposts the determination of the Federal Government to ensure that clear and measurable progress is achieved in the execution of capital projects”.

The federal government capital budget for the current year stands at N1.119 trillion out of N4.695 trillion
A breakdown of the budget at a glance shows that N408,687,801,891 is for statutory transfers; N712 billion is for debt service; N2,454,887,566,702 is for recurrent
Finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, while presenting details of the 2014 federal government budget, on January 20, lamented the administrations’ dilemma over the boated recurrent expenditure

She said, “the high share of recurrent expenditure in the budget is of great concern as it reduces the size of funds available for investments in capital projects. We worked hard to reduce this ratio from 74.4 per cent in 2011, to 71.5 per cent in 2012, and further to 67.5 per cent in 2013 but it has risen back to 74 per cent in 2014.”