•Makes provision for defence, cash transfer, wage awards, others
•Approves N5.9bn for Abuja light rail access roads
•Gives go ahead for construction of coastal roads from Lagos to Calabar, trans-Sahara route from Enugu to Cameroun
•Tech programme receives 550,000 applications in two weeks
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) rose from its weekly meeting, presided by President Bola Tinubu at State House, Abuja, yesterday with an approval of N2,176,791,286, 033 as 2023 supplementary budget proposal for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.
Addressing newsmen after the FEC meeting, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, said the supplementary budget estimates to be sent to the National Assembly for passage made provisions for the defence ministry, cash transfer to Nigerians, and wage awards to civil servants, among others.
According to Bagudu, “The council considered a request for supplementary appropriation, which is a second for 2023 and graciously approved the sum of N2,176,791,286,033 as supplementary budget and this supplementary budget is to fund urgent issues including: N605 billion for national defence and security. This is to sustain the gains made in security and to accelerate and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out.
“Equally, a sum of N300 billion was provided to repair bridges, including Eko and Third Mainland bridges as well as construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.
“Equally, the sum of N200bn was provisioned for seed, agricultural input, supplies and agricultural implements and infrastructure in order to support expansion of production.
“Equally, the sum of N210 billion is provided for the payment of Wage Awards. In negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress, the federal government agreed to pay N35, 000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the federal government and that amounts from September, October, November and December 2023. And that amounts to about N210 billion, which has been approved, and also N400 billion as Cash Transfer payments.
“You may recall that the federal government secured $800 million loan from the World Bank to pay Cash Transfers of N25, 000 to 15 million households. The $800 million is for two months, October and November. The president graciously approved that an additional month should be funded by the federal government and that is what this N100 billion is for.
“Equally, N100 billion has been provided for the Federal Capital Territory in order to support them in urgent and immediate capital expenditure works that can enhance the infrastructure in the city.
“Equally, N18 billion was provided for the Independent National Electoral Commission to support them in the conduct in the Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo elections.
“The sum N5.5billion naira was provided for the funding of the takeoff of the Student Loans Board as well as N8billion for the take-off grant of new ministries. Equally, a sum of N200billion was provided as capital supplementation to deal with urgent requests that have been made to Mr. President from various parts of the country.”
FEC also approved N5.9 billion for the construction of access roads for the Abuja light rail system.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, told reporters that the president had set a timeline for the completion of the Abuja light rail project, emphasising the importance of addressing the roads that connect the railway.
Wike said, “Today, council approved the ward of contract for the construction of access roads for the Abuja light rail. We are aware that Mr. President has given a directive that very soon he would want to ride on the right rail. Now, that would not be possible if there are no access roads for commuters in communities around.
“Last week, council approved for a Lot 3 but this has to do with Lot 4. Lot 4 has to do with communities around the airport. If we don’t create access road it will be difficult. And so to approved to Messers CCPCC at the cost of N5.5 billion.”
The federal government also received a total application of over 550,000 from across the country for the first batch of its three million technical talent pool programme. Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, who disclosed this at post-FEC briefing also said the federal government was collaborating with states, such as Cross River, Kwara and Ogun, seeking ways to explore the possibility of sharing infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of the training programme to applicants.
Tijani applauded the broad distribution of applications, saying it is a significant reason for government’s enthusiasm regarding the programme.
The minister further explained that in Tinubu’s administration, technology had become a significant component in the way the country fulfilled its responsibilities and transformed public services. However, he said effective utilisation of technology required a skilled workforce to drive it.
The minister added, “As part of that agenda, if you’ve been following you will notice we’ve started a new project that we call the three million technical talent. This is a programme where we aim over the next four years to train three million technical talents but also find sustainable ways to put them into jobs. This programme was announced two weeks ago.
“We’re happy to announce that while we were targeting just 30,000 for the first batch, we’ve actually received an application of over 550,000 applications from across the country. I think the spread in the application is also why we’re extremely excited about this programme.”
Tijani further noted that the global trend was increasingly embracing technology, and there was a worldwide shortage of talent in the field.
He stated, “We all know that technology under this government is becoming a major part of how we do things, how we reposition public services, but you can’t really leverage technology if you don’t have the talents to drive it. So for technology to truly work for Nigeria we need a very deep workforce that can power our ambition. But the beauty also is that the world generally is adopting technology and there’s shortage of people and talent globally for this.
“So we’ve been in deep conversations with state governors and different partner organisations. An announcement was made last week where HIS, one of the local infrastructure companies, committed N1 billion towards the programme.
“We’ve been to states like Cross River State, we’ve been engaging states like Kwara State, Ogun State, where we’re looking to share some of the infrastructure in the process of being able to deliver this training programme to this applicant. I think one thing that is important to note with why we’re doing this is not just another training.
“So we’re looking at this programme as not only providing an opportunity for us to build our workforce locally, but to also become a net exporter of talent, we would like our young people who are technologically savvy to be able to work remotely for companies all over the world. And this is why we believe that this programme is going to become a key game changer in the coming years.”
On his part, Minister of Works, David Umahi, disclosed that he presented a memo to the council for approval on the coastal roads running from Lagos to Port Harcourt and Calabar.
Umahi stated that the harvest roads to the Trans-Sahara route, which he said runs from Enugu – Abakaliki – Ogoja down to Cameroon, another road project under Phase 2 as well as the Badagry to Sokoto were all approved for financing.
He said, “So, it was approved to be into finance in a model of EPC + F that’s engineering, procurement, construction and then Plustv + Financing, and so council deliberated and approved and then directed the Minister of Finance to expedite action on its own part.”
