President Muhammadu Buhari is asking the National Assembly for approval to<\/p>\n
borrow the sum $29.960 billion externally to execute key infrastructure
\nprojects across the country between 2016 and 2018.<\/p>\n
In separate letters to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker, House
\nof Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, also requested for approval to vire
\nN180 billion of the N500 billion appropriated for Special Intervention
\nProgramme as in 2016 budget, to enable the government finance other key
\nprojects.<\/p>\n
Titled, Request for Virement of Funds Appropriated for Special
\nIntervention (Recurrent) and Special Intervention (Capital) for the
\nfunding of critical recurrent and capital items and\u00a0 Request for Approval
\nof Federal Government 2016 \u2013 2018 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan,the
\ntwo letters were read on the floors of both chambers yesterday.<\/p>\n
According to him, “The total cost of the projects and programmes under the
\nborrowing (rolling) plan is $29.960 billion, made up of proposed projects
\nand programmes loan of $11.274 billion, Special National Infrastructure
\nprojects $10.686 billion, Euro bonds of $4.5 billion and Federal
\nGovernment budget support of $3.5billion.”<\/p>\n
The President, who also explained that the loan was very necessary, in
\nview of the serious infrastructure deficit in the country, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced
\nin the country and the enormous financial resources required to fill the
\ngap, in the face of dwindling resources and the inability of our annual
\nbudgetary provisions to bridge the deficit, it has become necessary to
\nresort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financing gap, which
\nwill largely be applied to key infrastructure projects, namely power,
\nrailway and road projects, among others.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the N180 billion virement would be moved from monies already
\nappropriated for special intervention programmes, both recurrent and
\ncapital, for funding of critical recurrent and capital items.<\/p>\n
The President added that the request came up because of shortfalls in
\nprovisions for personnel costs; inadequate provision, ab initio, for some
\nitems like the amnesty programme; continuing requirements to sustain the
\nwar against insurgency; and depreciation of the Naira.<\/p>\n
The projects to be financed with the N180.839 billion include the Amnesty
\nprogramme, National Youth Serve Corps, NYSC, and the Public Service Wage
\nAdjustment, PSWA.<\/p>\n
President Buhari explained that external borrowing plan would be targeted
\nat projects which cut across all sectors, with special emphasis on
\ninfrastructure, agriculture, health, education , water supply, among
\nothers. According to the letter which was read at the Senate by the Deputy
\nPresident of Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session, the
\nAmnesty Programme will get a total sum of N35 billion from the transfer.<\/p>\n
It added that the total recurrent expenditure requirement to be
\ntransferred was N166,630,886,954, while the capital expenditure
\nrequirement to be transferred was N14,208,367,476\u2033 A breakdown of the
\nspecific areas the N180.9 billion would be transferred to showed that
\nPublic Service Wage Adjustment takes the lion share of N71,800,215,270;
\nfollowed by the Amnesty Programme, which took N35billion while the
\nmobilisation of corps members received N19,792,018,400.<\/p>\n
Others are: Foreign Missions which gulped N14,667,230,014; Operation
\nLafiya Dole takes N13,933,093,000; Nigerian Air Force takes
\nN12,708,367,476; Internal Operations of the Armed Forces takes
\nN5,205,930,270; Margin for Increase in Cost takes N2billion, while
\nPresidential Initiative for the North East received N1.5billion. Also,
\nContingency, salary shortfall for Public Complaints Commission got
\nN1.2billion each, even as Cadet Feeding of Police Academy, Kano,
\nAugmentation of Meal subsidy for Unity Colleges received N932,400,000 and
\nN900,000,000 respectively.<\/p>\n
On the need to make more funds available to the amnesty programme, the
\nPresident said, \u201cOnly N20,000,000,000 (already fully released) was
\nprovided in the 2016 budget for the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequently, the allowances to ex-militants have only been paid up to
\nMay 2016. This is creating a lot of restiveness and compounding the
\nsecurity challenge in the Niger Delta,\u201d Buhari said.<\/p>\n
On NYSC funding, the President said: \u201cThe Provision for NYSC in the 2016
\nbudget is inadequate to cater for the number of corpers to be mobilized
\nthis year. In fact, an additional N8.5billion is required to cover the
\nbacklog of 129, 469 corps members who are currently due for call-up but
\nwould otherwise be left out till next year due to funding constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n
President who, also explained why the sum of N71.8 billion had to be
\ntransferred from the intervention programme, said:\u00a0 \u201cSimilarly, the
\nprovision for meal subsidy for the Unity Colleges is inadequate for the
\nnumber of students in the schools. Also, there was no provision for
\nfeeding of cadets at the Police Academy, Wudil, Kano. These situations are
\nhampering the operations of the affected agencres. \u201cThe provision for
\nStatutory Transfer to the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) was reduced
\nto N2,000,000,000 in 2016 from N4,000,000,000 in 2015.<\/p>\n
Consequently, the agency is experiencing difficulty in paying salaries of
\nits personnel as and when due. \u201cDue to the devaluation of the Naira, the
\nbudgetary provisions for the foreign missions are no longer sufficient to
\ncover all their costs. The provision for Presidential Initiative for the
\nNorth East (N12,000,000,000) has a balance of less than N1.5bn, and there
\ncontinue to be emerging challenges with the Internally Displaced Persons
\n(lDPs) in the zone.\u201d The letter reads in part:\u201dIn the course of
\nimplementing the 2016 Appropriation Act, several MDAs have presented
\nissues pertaining to salary shortfalls, the settlement of part of which
\nhas led to the depletion of the Public Service Wage Adjustment (PSWA).
\nThis Vote, which had a provision of N33, 597,400,000, now has a balance of
\nN2, 758,296,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Committee on Salary Shortfalls, set up by the Honourable Minister of
\nFinance, has come up with a figure of N41,875,983,020 as the amount
\nrequired to settle salary shortfalls of non-lPPlS MDAs. Similarly, most of
\nthe lPPlS MDAs have already been notified by the Office of the
\nAccountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) that they would soon be locked
\nout of the IPPIS Platform as their Personnel Cost budgets would not cover
\nsalaries for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lPPlS Department in the OAGF has forwarded a figure of N20,
\n058,204,856 as the sum required to cover the shortfall in salaries of
\nlPPlS MDAs. The Security-related lines in the Service Wide Vote,
\nspecifically Operations internal for the Armed Forces (N13billion) and
\nOperation Lafiya Dole (N8billion) have all been totally released while the
\nNigerian Air Force needs about (N12,708,367,476) to cover the foreign
\nexchange differentials in the procurement of its critical capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Contingency Vote of N12billion has a balance of only N1,827,570,443.
\nit is considered necessary to augment this vote in the light of frequently
\nemerging contingencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly N20,000,000,000 (already fully released) was provided in the 2016
\nbudget for the Niger Delta Amnesty Progr mme. Consequently, the allowances
\nto ex-militants have only been paid up to May 2016. This is creating a lot
\nof restiveness and compounding the security challenge in the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Provision for NYSC in the 2016 budget is inadequate to cater for the
\nnumber of corpers to be mobilized this year. In fact, an additional
\nN8.5billion is required to cover the backlog of 129, 469 corps members who
\nare currently due for call-up but would otherwise be left out till next
\nyear due to funding constraints. Similarly, the provision for meal subsidy
\nfor the Unity Colleges is inadequate for the number of students in the
\nschools. \u201cAlso, there was no provision for feeding of cadets at the Police
\nAcademy, Wudil, Kano. These situations are hampering the operations of the
\naffected agencies. The provision for Statutory Transfer to the Public
\nComplaints Commission (PCC) was reduced to N2,000,000,000 in 2016 from
\nN4,000,000,000 in 2015.<\/p>\n
Consequently, the agency is experiencing difficulty in paying salaries of
\nits personnel as and when due. \u201cDue to the devaluation of the Naira, the
\nbudgetary provisions for the foreign missions are no longer sufficient to
\ncover all their costs \u201cThe provision for Presidential Initiative for the
\nNorth East (N12, 000,000,000) has a balance of less than N1.5bn, and there
\ncontinue to be emerging challenges with the Internally Displaced Persons
\n(lDPs) in the zone\u201d.<\/p>\n
The breakdown of the virement proposal shows that N71.8 billion is for
\npublic service wage adjustment, N35billion for Amnesty programme,
\nN19.8billion for mobilization of remaining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Muhammadu Buhari is asking the National Assembly for approval to borrow the sum $29.960 billion externally to execute key infrastructure projects across the country between 2016 and 2018. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n