Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has maintained that, contrary to the belief in some quarters that the country is broke, the nation’s economy is buoyant and the Executive arm of government has not breached any law in the implementation of the budget.
She made this clear during an interactive session with the Senate Joint Committee on Appropriation, Finance, Public Account and National Planning. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala further said that, in view of the fact that the implementation of the budget began only in April, the budget was still on course, having achieved about 40 per cent implementation in four months.
“The country is absolutely not broke, though it may have problem of cash flow at times, but it is not out of place. There may be temporary cash flow issue but broke, no.’’
She then explained that out of the N1.3trillion allocation for capital projects, N404 billion had been released while N184 billion had been utilised. She further disclosed that about N140 billion representing 44 per cent of the amount was still in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) waiting for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to utilise.