The federal government says it will release an additional N60 billion next week as part of ongoing efforts to tackle infrastructure deficit and facilitate revitalization of the economy.

Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, disclosed this on Thursday while addressing Senators on the state of the country’s economy since the 2016 budget came into effect. She said all the releases made so far were fully cash backed.

A breakdown of the money released shows that N170 billion was given to the Ministry of Works, Power, and Housing, with works alone getting N74 billion in two months, and Agriculture received N21.6 billion within the same period.

The Finance Minister told the legislators that all agricultural equipment now come into the country at zero percent (0%) custom duty, stressing that it will aide government’s economic diversification efforts and improve the drive towards food sufficiency.

According to her, the prospect of Nigeria’s economic recovery before the end of 2016 is very bright despite the present hardship facing the people.

“We will grow out of this economic challenge and bounce back better in the next few months.”

She said that government decided to release the monies strategically as part of its stimulus package to drive the economy.

Mrs. Adeosun confirmed that government did not give bailout to distressed states to pay salaries, stressing that states were now being encouraged to look inwards to develop agricultural produce that could help them expand their internally generated revenue platforms and avoid the crisis associated with non-payment of salaries.

“Federal government did not give money to the states to pay salaries but what we did was to provide risk guarantee that will enable the states to expand their borrowing capacities with the commercial banks.” (Independent)

•Photo shows Kemi Adeosun.

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