Abuja, Nigeria
The upper chamber of the National Assembly has released the details of sectoral allocations of the N27.5 trillion proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
Daily Trust reports that this is coming amid the controversy over the sketchy details of the budget President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Some lawmakers had claimed they were only provided copies of the president’s speech during a debate on the budget, a development some members of the National Assembly said had never happened in the past.
They raised concerns over the non-availability of the budget details and called for the suspension of the consideration until the breakdown of the proposed expenditure is provided.
However, both chambers have passed the proposal for a second reading without the opportunity for the lawmakers to lay their hands on the breakdown of the estimates, including allocations to different sectors.
In reaction to the development, the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Friday night released some highlights of the budget, especially the sectoral allocations.
In the proposal, the ministries of Works, Finance and Defence got the highest share of allocation in the N8.7 trillion capital component of the 2024 budget.
The Ministry of Works gets N521.3 billion, followed by the Ministry of Finance with N519.9 billion while N308.2 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Defence.
Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is earmarked N304.4 billion while N265.4 billion was proposed for capital projects in the Ministry of Education.
Others are: Ministry of Power N264.2 billion, Government owned Enterprises N820.9 billion, TETFund N665 Billion Housing and Urban Development N96.9 billion, Water Resources N87.7 billion and Police Affairs N69 billion.
The National Assembly under statutory transfers gets N198 billion, Niger Delta Development Commission N324.8 billion, Universal Basic Education N251.4 billion, National Judicial Council N165 billion, North East Development Commission N126 billion and Basic Health Care Provision Fund N125.7 billion.
Under Capital Supplementation, Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIPs) otherwise called constituency projects for federal lawmakers gets N100 billion, Special Projects N108 billion, Contingency (capital) N200 billion, Aid and Grants funded projects N685.6billion, National Social Investment Programme Agency N100 billion.
