·$10.7bn to go to infrastructure, $3.5bn for budget support, $11.3bn for other proposed projects
President Muhammadu Buhari has written
to the National Assembly to seek approval to borrow $29.96 billion under
the External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan to address the infrastructure
deficit in the health, education, water resources and other sectors.
The president is also seeking the
approval of the legislature to vire N180.8 billion from the funds
appropriated for special intervention (recurrent and capital) in the
2019 budget, to fund critical recurrent and capital items.
Buhari’s letter, which was read at
plenary yesterday by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara, indicated that the $29.96 billion is for proposed projects and
programmes loan of $11.274 billion, $10.686 billion for special national
infrastructure projects, Eurobonds of $4.5 billion, and federal
government budget support of $3.5 billion.
The president said the projects and
programmes under the external borrowing plan were selected based on
positive technical economic evaluations, as well as the contributions
they would make to the socio-economic development of the country,
including employment generation, poverty reduction, and protection of
the nation’s vulnerable population.
Some of the funds from the external
borrowing plan would be deployed to emergency projects in the
North-east, particularly following the recent outbreak of polio after
the de-listing of Nigeria from polio endemic countries.
The World Bank has provided a loan of
$125 million for the federal government to procure vaccines and other
ancillary facilities to stop the polio outbreak, and also provided $450
million to assist in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the
North-east, the president disclosed.
The entire projects for the North-east,
according to the president’s letter, are: polio eradication support and
routine immunisation ($125 million), community and social development
projects ($75 million), Nigeria States and Health Programme Investment
Project ($125 million), State Education Programme Investment Project
($100 million), Nigeria Youth Employment and Social Support Project
($100 million), and Fadama III Project ($50 million).
“Given the emergency nature of these
facilities and the need to consolidate the peace and return the region
to normalcy, and considering the time it would take to get National
Assembly’s approval, it has become inevitable to request for the
National Assembly leadership’s approval, pending the consideration and
approval of the 2016-2018 borrowing plan by the National Assembly to
enable us disburse these funds immediately,” Buhari said in the letter.
Similarly, in the letter seeking
virement of funds within the 2016 budget, the president provided a
breakdown of items to which the N180.8 billion would be allocated.
He sought the virement of N166.6 billion
(for recurrent expenditure) from the Special Intervention (recurrent)
for which the sum of N300 billion was appropriated, which now has a
balance of N275 billion, and N14.2 billion (for capital expenditure)
from capital in the federal government special intervention programme
for which N200 billion was appropriated, which has a balance of N145
billion.
A breakdown of the proposed expenditure
is: Public Service Wage Adjustment – N71,800,215,270, Service Wide Vote:
Contingency – N1,200,000,000, Service Wide Vote: Margin for Increase in
Cost – N2,000,000,000, Ministry of Interior: Cadet Feeding – Police
Academy, Wudil, Kano – N932,400,000, and Amnesty Programme –
N35,000,000,000.
Other items are internal operations of
the Armed Forces – N5,205,930,270, Service Wide Vote: Operation Lafiya
Dole – N13,933,093,000, Ministry of Youth and Sports Development: NYSC –
N19,792,018,400, Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Missions –
N14,667,230,014, and Ministry of Education: Augmentation of Meal
Subsidy/Direct Teaching and Lab Cost – N900,000.
The letter indicated that N1.2 billion
was proposed to fund the salary shortfall in the Public Complaints
Commission, while N12,708,367,476 was proposed for the capital budget of
the Nigerian Air Force, and N1.5 billion for capital supplementation:
Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE).
“You may also wish to be informed that
the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has also requested for
virement of the sum of N300 million appropriated under the 2016
Appropriation of the Transmission Company of Nigeria for the
construction of a 132 KVA substation at Gwaram, Jigawa State with
Project code no. TCN 01B023829 to the construction of two 60MVA 132/33
in Gagarawa, Jigawa State.
“However it was observed that while the
line to be vired from exists in the budget book published by the
National Assembly, the lines to be vired to, do not exist. It is
therefore recommended that the sum of N300 million meant for the
construction of the 132 KVA substation at Gwaram, Jigawa State, be vired
to budget line TCN 01B021775 for the reconstruction of fallen
transmission towers replacement, replacement of glass insulators, etc,
which has an appropriation of N4,880,000,000,” Buhari said in the
letter.
Dogara, after reading out the letter,
said that the requests of the president and the Medium Term Expenditure
Framework (MTEF) would be discussed and debated by the House on
Thursday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment