Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory Administration has proposed an expenditure framework of N271.532 Billion for the 2018 fiscal year.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, who presented the budget to the Senate Committee on FCT today, Tuesday, said that the figure showed an increase of N49.171 Billion over the appropriation for 2017 which was at N222. 360 Billion.
The Minister gave a breakdown of the sectoral allocations which showed priority being given to Capital Expenditure, which got N154.232 Billion representing 56.8 percent of the estimate.
Overhead cost came second with N61 billion or 22.5 percent, while Personnel was estimated to cost N56 billion representing 20.68 percent of the total.
The increase, the Minister said, is based on the expected higher revenue generation by the FCT in view of the take-off of the FCT Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and expected increased funds from the federation account.
He said that the Administration would pay attention to the completion of ongoing infrastructure projects to make the city more liveable, adding that N70 billion has been earmarked for this purpose.
In the same vein, N4.7 billion will go to on-going critical new projects, while N21.1 billion is proposed for ongoing as well as new infrastructure projects in satellite towns.
Amount of N37.96 billion has been set aside for the education Sector while the Health Sector received N22.8 billion.
Other major expenditure areas include Resettlement & Compensation – N8.9Billion and Transportation Sector – N20.5Billion. Of this amount, the Abuja Light Rail Project would gulp N12.3Billion. Environment, Water and Agriculture sectors together have been allocated approximately N16.3Billion among others.
The Budget which has been described as a balanced budget would be funded from the 1 percent of the 52.68 percent Statutory Allocation to the Federal Government from the Federation Account, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and other sources as contained in the Fiscal Framework of the Federal Government.
In his brief remark at the occasion, the Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Melaye, expressed delight at the remarkable improvement recorded in the Budget performance for the 2017 Fiscal year which showed a 62 percent level of accomplishment.
He congratulated the FCT Administration for the successful commissioning of the Abuja Rail Mass Transit System, while harping on the necessity for honesty, prudence and transparency in the management of government resources.
