Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has been advised to give priority to projects that could be funded with the 2016 budget and the proposed 2017 Appropriation in order to ensure early completion and inauguration of such projects.
The ministry was given the advice by the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, on Thursday during the defence of 2017 budget and the implementation of that of 2016.
At the event, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, noted that out of N19.4 billion Naira and N727.2 million appropriated to the Ministry for capital and overhead expenditures in 2016, only the sum of N8.1 billion of the Capital Appropriation has been so far released, while the sum of N525,569,190.94 was released as overhead expenditures.
The minister also stated that the total budgetary proposal of the Ministry in year 2017 is N35, 501,382,365.00. The personnel cost was put at N1, 081,793,241), N727, 081,124.00 for overhead and N33, 692,500,000.00 for capital projects.
“For the ministry to successfully complete all its projects between now and 2018, we need far in excess of the N131 billion we earlier requested, because on daily basis, there are recurrent issues of financial demands, coupled with inflation rate,” the minister said.
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