The minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Friday announced the release of N350bn into the economy as government looks to ensure liquidity and stimulate the economy out of recession.
Adeosun told journalists in Abuja that with the new release of N350bn into the economy, the capital votes under the 2016 budget now released had gone up to N760bn.
The decision to spend more on construction and other capital projects is expected to stimulate different sectors of the economy and create the needed liquidity to pull the country out of recession.
Punch reports that the often maligned finance minister stated that with the economy in recession, the level of consumer demand would be reduced drastically, hence the need for government to step in by injecting liquidity.
She said, “What government wants to do is to step in and begin to spend and pushing more money into the economy and then get things moving again.
“Since the budget was passed in May, we have released N420bn. As we speak now, we are about releasing another N350bn. Everything has been between May and now.
“One of the sectors we spent the money on, of course the largest, has been power, works and housing. Quite a lot has gone on defence because we need to rebuild the credibility of our Army.”
Adeosun said that out of the N350bn, the government would be setting aside N60bn for the implementation of the administration’s social intervention programme.
She explained that the implementation of social safety schemes was vital, as it would enable the government to provide direct cash to vulnerable Nigerians.
The current administration has an ambitious social welfare programme which would see it paying monthly stipends to the most vulnerable in the society as well as feed school students.
About 500,000 teachers are also to be employed under a teaching volunteers scheme supervised by the office of the Vice president which oversees the administration’s social intervention programmes named N-Power.
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