The Federal Government will spend a whopping N1.8 trillion this year on capital spending, the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said on Thursday.
He said this is a clear departure from the past when about N400 billion was planned for capital spending.
The former Lagos governor stated this at the 5th meeting of national council on land, housing and urban development held in Ilorin, Kwara State.
The theme of the meeting is: “Building adequate capacity of professionals, artisans and tradesmen in the built environment.”
Fashola said: “As you will be aware, one of the decisions taken by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is to increase the capital spending in 2016 budget to 30 percent of the total budget size of N6.06 trillion. This is a change for those who still ask what has changed. It is a change because it is a welcome departure from almost a decade of spending only 10 per cent of our annual budget on capital expenditure.
“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 the economy, to stimulate the economy 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 to employment for them.