"Nigeria is not broke...only has cash-flow problems" - Okonjo-Iweala

According to the Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during an interactive session with the Senate Joint committee on Appropriation, Finance, Public Account and National Planning, the nation’s economy is buoyant and the Executive arm of government has not breached any law in the implementation of the budget.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was at the National Assembly, said 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 declared.

She 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.

She expressed concern over the budgeting systems in the country where the budget year is extended to March of the succeeding year, pointing out that “it is not done anywhere in the world and this must be changed.”

She counselled the lawmakers against hasty judgment on the performance of the budget, saying: “ Give us till the end of the year before passing judgment on the performance of the budget, it is premature to talk of abysmally low performance.’’

She apologised to the committee for not being able to honour previous appointments on the session and the misrepresentation by the media. “I want to say that when I read papers, I was amazed with some figures, some section of the media has been misinforming. We sent out a press release, detailing all what has been done regarding the use of resources but even with written comments, it has been twisted, thereby leading to misinformation. I appreciate this opportunity to dialogue”, she said.