Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun on Monday disclosed that she has signed warrant for the release of an additional N750 billion to finance capital expenditure in the 2017 budget.
This according to Adeosun while receiving a delegation of some French business people on a trade mission has brought total amount of capital releases in the budget to N1.2 trillion as N450 billion had earlier been disbursed.
The 2017 budget, which was signed into law on June 12 has a capital expenditure component of N2.2 trillion.
She said Nigeria was on the path to economic recovery, which is not dependent on oil as “we have seen many opportunities opened up.”
The Minister noted that 75 percent of the country’s economy is agriculture and that the current federal administration was working on a range of reforms.
She assured the visiting investors that naira, Nigeria’s currency “is now fairly priced and stable’, while we are mobilizing revenue from taxes. We now have a data that is able to correctly assess tax payers.”
Enumerating other investment avenues available, Adeosun said government foresees growth in banking, services, manufacturing sectors as well as opportunities in banking sector.
She explained that the realization that without infrastructure, it is difficult for any business to compete that government decided to concentrate on infrastructure development, which led to the release of the N1.2 trillion so far from the 2017 capital budget component.
The Minister then told her guests that in addition to the above, government was not relenting on the fight against corruption.
“The fight against corruption is continuing because we know that investors will not come in if we do not address the issue of corruption and government is squarely addressing it.”
Earlier, leader of the delegation, Mr. Philippe Labonne congratulated the Minister on the country’s exit from economic recession and described the country as a land of investment opportunities for French companies through local partnerships.