Olawale Ajimotokan
Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, yesterday asked the National Assembly to approve N17,109,746,531.00 appropriated for FCT Administration in the N27.5 trillion 2024 proposed National Appropriation Bill.
He made the plea when he appeared before the Joint Session of the Senate and House Committees on FCT.
He explained that N17.1 billion was allocated to the FCT Administration as its National Priority Capital Budget Ceiling for the 2024 fiscal year.
He said the FCT carefully prioritised projects identified for implementation to achieve quick and robust impact, adding the budget if passed would help complete critical projects in the nation’s capital and the satellite towns.
The budget presented by Wike proposed N5 billion as a counterpart fund for the Greater Abuja Water Supply projects, N4.5 billion for the design and construction of Abuja Cultural Centre and Millennium Tower, and N3 billion for the rehabilitation of the Federal Secretariat while N4 billion was allocated for the completion of the Vice President’s Residence.
He also added that N609.7 million would go into the settlement of residential and office accommodation for international organisations in FCT.
Evaluating the performance of the 2023 budget, Wike said that out of the N15.5 billion that was appropriated for infrastructural development, only N8 billion was released representing 52 per cent.
Responding, the Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Ibrahim Bomai, acknowledged that all the projects were ongoing ones, adding that the funds would not be enough to complete the projects.
He pointed out that the FCT operates a dual budget – the national budget and the statutory budget and expressed hope that the statutory budget might be in the hundreds of billions.
He, therefore, appealed to the members of the joint session to give no objection considering the meager amount.
