2016 Budget May Not Achieve Target – Fashola

Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Minister of
Power, Works and Housng has said that the
2016 budget may not achieve its aim if
contracts are mainly handled by foreign
companies.
He said this during the 5th meeting of the
National Council on Lands, Housing and
Urban Development in Ilorin, the Kwara
State capital on Friday.
The Minister said, “The decisions taken by
the Buhari administration is to increase the
capital spending in 2016 budget to 30 per
cent of the total budget size of N6.06tn.
This is change for those who still ask what
has changed. It is change because it is a
welcome departure from almost a decade
of spending only 10 per cent of our annual
budget on capital expenditure.
“It means that unlike in the past, when only
about N400bn was planned for capital
spending, and indeed much less was
ultimately released and spent, this year
about N1.8tn is planned for capital
spending with the commitment to fund it.
“But this is not the end of the purpose of
spending. It is only the means to get to the
end.
“The end really is to reflate this economy,
to stimulate it back to growth and back to
productivity. To provide the opportunity for
people to feel included in the economy in a
way that growth then translates into
employment for them. Employment for
ordinary hardworking people who can then
get up in the morning and say with the
dignity that comes with it that I am going
to work.”
He added, “But I must advise that inclusion
and employment will not happen by
happenstance. They will not happen simply
because government plans to spend money
and actually does so.
“Yes, the budget will work, money will be
spent, but inclusion may not happen and
the people targeted for the benefit may not
benefit, if the benefit is transferred to
foreign countries, to foreign factories
because professionals either do not
participate or where they do, they prefer
foreign made or imported goods to local
ones.”