The Federal Capital Territory’s (FCT’s) N607.9 billion budget 2022 scaled the second reading on Wednesday at the Senate following the deliberations on the provisions at plenary.
The Senate Leader, Sen. Ibrahim Gobir, who led the debate at plenary, told the lawmakers that
The budget sought to authorise the issue from the Federal Capital Territory Administration Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Capital Territory Administration Account, the total sum of N607 billion.
According to him, N76 billion out of the amount was for personnel cost, while N138 billion was for overhead cost while the balance of N393 billion is for capital project for the service of the FCTfor the financial year commencing from Jan. 1 and ending Dec. 31, 2022.”
Gobir explained that the fundamental thrust of the FCT 2022 budget was to ensure an effective and enduring service oriented administration for the completion of ongoing projects and the provision of effective services to the residents of the FCT.
The lawmaker explained that further appraisal of the 2021 FCT statutory budget indicated that the FCT Administration in 2021 received an appropriation of N329 billion.
The senate leader expatiated: “During the year 2021, a total sum of N74 billion was spent on personnel cost, representing 100 per cent.
“The sum of N52, 737, 251, 744. 00 was expended on overhead cost, representing 79 per cent, while the sum of N72, 730, 869, 849.00 was expended on capital projects, representing 39 per cent.
“Worthy of note is that the FCT was originally planned for about 3.1 million people. The rapid urban growth coupled with the slow pace of development of infrastructure for the teeming population has led to scarcity of infrastructures”, Gobir added.
Noting that the FCT is far behind in terms of achieving the developmental target envisaged, the lawmaker explained that “only 20 per cent of the target has been achieved due to scarce resources often made available to the administration over the years.”
He said that the FCT required a minimum of N1 trillion to resuscitate and complete abandoned and on-going projects within the districts that had so far been developed or partially developed.
In his contribution to the debate, the Chairman, Senate Committee on the FCT, Sen. Smart Adeyemi, acknowledged that the budget was too low to achieve remarkable development in the FCT
He explained: “This is a budget that is coming some months far behind time. But notwithstanding, effort is made to ensure that those areas that require attention of government which will help to improve the security of life and property of Abuja residents is executed within the available time.
“We will ensure the 2023 budget is ready before the end of this month”, Adeyemi assured.
Similarly, the Senate Minority Leader, Philip Aduda, said that it was unfortunate that the budget was coming late just as the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, described the delay as unfortunate and unacceptable.
He said: “We have worked so hard to change the budget cycle of the Federal Government. And here we have a state we are receiving the budget of the FCT for 2022 in October.
“This is unacceptable. We are only considering this because innocent FCT residents will suffer. Otherwise we shouldn’t pass this. If they don’t bring it next week, they should keep it themselves,” he added.
