Osinbajo: We spent N1.3trn on 2016 capital projects – highest ever

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says the Buhari administration spent N1.3 trillion on capital projects in 2016 alone, the highest in the history of Nigeria.

Osinbajo made this statement on Monday while speaking at a plenary of the 2017 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) national conference in Lagos.

“The federal government spent about N1.3 trillion on capital projects in 2016, the highest in the history of the country,” he said.

“The power sector reform is also ongoing as it is one of the most important sectors in the country,” he said at the conference which was themed ‘African business: penetrating through institution building.”

The sub-theme of the plenary was ‘Conversations with the vice-president’ and was moderated by Zain Asher, a CNN news anchor.

The vice-president said the administration had cleared the ‘mess inherited from the previous administration’ adding that prosperity was returning to states.

“For the economy, we are going to see a tripling in the harvesting of rice, prosperity is returning to some states like Kebbi and Zamfara,” he said.

“The rural areas where the highest level of poverty is experienced, there is a turnaround as the highest number of people who went for 2017 hajj were farmers.

“There is a lot of export of agricultural products, what we need to do is to engage in more value-added exports and we have quite a few investors.”

Osinbajo said the government is trying to reduce incidences of corruption by increasing the use of technology in processes and private sector involvement

“Government ownership of business encourages corruption. The more private-sector involvement in businesses, the more efficient the system will be and the less corrupt the system will be.

“We are currently working on a ‘one-government system’ to tackle bureaucracy. For example, if you need five different approvals from five government agencies, under this system communication with one agency is sufficient as all the agencies will liaise with one another.

“We have introduced technology in a lot of processes. For example, company registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); The less human contact, the less incidences of corruption.”

Osinbajo said the beneficial ownership scheme, which was introduced to get more wealthy Nigerians into the tax net, has been successful.