The Federal Government has released N200 billion capital for the third quarter of 2014, a statement from the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.
It is not clear how much has been cash-backed out of this sum, but the ministry said the funds will help ensure further progress in the execution of capital projects across the country.
The latest N200 billion brings total capital releases so far in the year to N600 billion- with N200 billion also released, each for first and second quarters capital expenditures and fully cash-backed.
This sum, however, is apart from other releases for other programmes like the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P).
Bright Okogu, director general, Budget Office, had confirmed sometime last month that out of N268.37 billion budgeted for projects under the SURE -P window, about N208 billion has been released, out of which N113 billion had been utilised.
The sluggish nature of the capital releases has been criticised as capable of stalling project implementation for the year.
But Okogu clarified that apart from the fact that the implementation of the 2014 took off late, shrinking oil revenue occasioned by frequent pipeline vandalism and inability of most spending agencies to utilise what has been released to them for capital expenditure were also delaying further releases and as such slowing down 2014 budget implementation.
On what could be responsible for the poor utilisation of released funds, Okogu stated, “There is capacity, there is the issue with contractors. There are also weather-related issues that sometimes will affect their pace of activities. So that tells you that the issue is not only about cash availability.”