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The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has said that the federal government is set to release an additional N350 billion earmarked for capital expenditure in the 2016 budget.

Speaking during a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, Adeosun said the additional funds are targeted at reflating the economy, which officially slipped into a recession in the second quarter of this year.

“What government wants to do is to step in and begin to spend and push more money into the economy and then get things moving again,” the Minister of Finance said.

Adeosun noted that since the budget was passed in May, the federal government has so far released N420 billion as part of the capital vote. She said the additional N350 billion about to be released will bring the total capital spending in the 2016 budget to N770 billion.

“When we started about a year ago, we had said this economy needed to be reflated. Growth was slowing consecutively for a number of quarters and there was always the remote risk of recession,” Adeosun said. “Now, the general thrust has not changed. We need to reflate the economy, we need to switch the economy from a consumption-driven economy to an investment-driven economy.”

The minister said the Ministry of Power, Works, and Housing has received the largest chunk of the capital releases in addition to the Defense ministry, which needs to “rebuild the credibility of the army to continue in their efforts in the new phase.” The Ministries of Interior and Transportation are other major destinations of the capital releases, Adeosun said.

The Minister further stated that the federal government will set aside N60 billion out of the additional N350 billion for implementation of its social investment programmes.

Under the N6.06 trillion budget for this year, the federal government budgeted N1.59 trillion for capital expenditure and N500 billion for social investment programmes.