On Friday, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, presented the 2024 National Appropriation Bill of N17,109,746,531.00 before a joint session of the Senate and House committees on FCT.
This is the minister’s first budget presentation in office as the 17th minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
He said the budget if passed by the joint session of the 10th NASS committees, will help to complete critical projects in the Federal Capital City (FCC) and the satellite towns.
The N17.109bn is FCT’s share of the N27.5 trillion 2024 national budget presented by President Bola Tinubu before the National Assembly recently.
Wike revealed that the sum of N5 billion was allocated as a counterpart fund for the Greater Abuja Water Supply projects and N4.5 billion for the design and construction of the Nigeria Cultural Centre and Millennium Tower.
He disclosed that N3 billion was allocated for the rehabilitation of the Federal Secretariat, while N4 billion was allocated for the completion of the Vice President’s Residence.
According to Wike, “N609.7 million is for the settlement of residential and office accommodation for international organisations in FCT.
“The money is just N17.1 billion, so what can I say other than to say, Please help us pass it?”
Speaking on the performance of the 2023 budget, Wike said that a total of N15.474,499,132.00 billion was appropriated for infrastructure development, of which only N8 billion has so far been released, representing 52%.
Senator Ibrahim Bomai, chairman of the senate committee of FCT, who spoke on behalf of his counters from the House of Representatives, said the amount was not enough for the completion of the ongoing projects, especially the Abuja Greater Water Works.
Bomai urged members of the joint session of the committees to consider the minister taking a bow and going, which they all accepted.
He said, “If we all agree, let the minister take a bow and go.”
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