–Says N5bn for rehabilitation of FG buildings
By Ene Abu
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Muhammad Musa Bello on Thursday presented a National Priority Budget proposal of N28, 422,804,431 for the year 2020 to the Senate Committee on the FCT.
The minister stressed that completion of on-going projects remains a priority for the FCT administration.
In his words, “In view of the poor performance of the Federal Capital Territory portion of the 2019 National Priority Budget, the Federal Capital Territory Administration has therefore, decided to re-prioritize and rollover only essential on-going projects without making provisions for new ones.”
Bello said a total of 13 projects, comprising 12 ongoing projects and one new project will be the focus of the budget, explaining that the new entrant was the rehabilitation of Federal government buildings at the cost of N5 billion.
Answering questions from the lawmakers, the minister who described the 2020 budget proposal as a budget of stability, stressed that the focus on ongoing road projects within the Federal Capital City and satellite towns is deliberate and a measure to check gridlock in the nearest future.
He explained, “If we don’t build all the link roads and interchanges now to accommodate traffic spills, it will come back to haunt us in the next two years or so because the city is ever expanding.”
Bello said the ongoing projects highlighted in the budget proposal were awarded some years ago to address the infrastructural demands of the FCT but over the years the FCT administration accumulated huge liabilities in order to roll out the projects.
In their remarks, members of the Senate Committee on FCT reiterated that there is an urgent need for funding for the FCT to be increased substantially.
The Senators agreed that the sum of N28 billion National Priority budget of the FCT is equivalent to $78 million which, it was admitted, is inadequate considering the critical infrastructural needs of the FCT.
According to Senator Phillip Aduda (representing FCT), while there is urgent need for the funds released to the FCT to be substantially increased, the FCT administration is also obliged to shore up its internally generated revenue.
Senator Rochas Okorocha equally advised the FCT administration to look inwards and exploit possible options including land-for-infrastructure programmes to raise the required capital to bridge infrastructural deficit.
Senator Tanko Almakura described the budget as very focused and commended the FCT administration for identifying areas of priorities.
He however sought greater collaboration with states neighboring the FCT.
The Chief Press Secretary to FCTA, Mr Anthony Ogunleye said the FCT minister was accompanied at the budget presentation by the FCT Minister of State Mrs Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, the Chief of Staff to the Minister Mr Bashir Mai Borno, the Director Treasury Mr Ishiaku Ismail, Director Engineering Services Mr Shehu Ahmed and other top management staff.
