THE Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Tuesday said her ministry had released a total sum of  N1.008.47tn to the Nigerian Army between January 2019 and April 2021.

The minister stated this when she appeared before the Senate Committee on Army.

The panel had summoned the minister following complaints by the Nigerian Army that it had outstanding N50bn to collect from the ministry which was part of the budgetary provision to fight terrorism.

But Ahmed told the Senate Committee that the Nigerian Army got more than the budgetary provision in the period under review.

She read out the Capital Funding of the Nigerian Army from 2019 till April 2021.

She said, “In 2019 what was budgeted for the Nigerian Army was N19.6bn and N12.84bn was released representing 64.37 per cent.

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“In 2020, the total capital budget for the Nigerian Army was N34.37bn and this amount was released 100 per cent.

“In 2021, that is this current year, the total budget for the Nigerian Army is N29bn. As at April, we have released N17.98bn of that, which is 68.92 per cent. It means we are on course to also release 100 per cent.”