Industry minister seeks N7.4bn approval for 83 capital projects

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, has defended the ministry’s budget for 2021 before the Senate, requesting N7.4bn for 83 capital projects.

This was part of a total of N11.18bn the ministry is seeking an approval from the Senate for the 2021 budget.

Adebayo said the ministry’s budget proposal also contained a personnel cost of N3.02bn and overhead cost of N762.81m.

He told the Senate joint committees on commerce and industry that the ministry received only N2.9bn out of the N7.3bn appropriated for capital projects in 2020.

This, he said, was far below what it got in 2019 and 2018 fiscal years, which he gave as N3.5bn and N7.9bn respectively for capital projects.

He urged the committee to approve the sum of N7.3bn proposed for the 2021 budget, saying that the ministry had 83 capital initiatives, made up of 56 ongoing ones and 27 new projects.

The capital budget, he told the committees, would be directed at the industrial policy reform and enabling business environment and international investment engagement initiatives.

Adeniyi added that the fund would enable full activation of the private sector-led six special economic zones comprising of Lekki, Enyimba, Funtua, Ibom, Kano and Benue coupled with the establishment of at least one agro-processing zone in each senatorial district.

The minister said the ministry would facilitate credit access to 10 million MSMEs at single-digit rate and promote made-in-Nigeria products that would bring an increase in industrial productivity, employment generation and reduction in the import of foreign products.

Adeniyi  listed other programmes to be funded through the capital budget to include the review of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council mandates and implementation of a four-year business environment transformation roadmap.

According to him, the ministry plan to revise and implement the National Industrial Revolution Plan; support Nigeria’s participation at the Expo 2020 from October 2021 – March 31, 2022; ensure ease of doing business and implement executive Orders.

 He added that the ministry would implement a strategy towards implementing the government’s promise to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years.