….As Rivers N1.48trn Appropriation Bill passes 2nd reading
The Senate has passed the 2025 Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Statutory Appropriation Bill of of N1.8 trillion.
This followed the presentation of report of Committees on FCT on the bill by the Chairman of the Committee (Yobe South) at plenary on Wednesday.
In the report, Senator Ibrahim said the Senate and the House of Representatives Committee on FCT met with the Honorable Minister and other relevant officials of the FCT administration to deliberate on the appropriation bill.
He said the breakdown of the budget included personnel cost of N106 billion, overhead of N352 billion, total recurrent was proposed for N502 billion while capital expenditure proposed was N1.3 trillion.
He said the total personal cost constitutes 8.29 per cent of the budget while the total recurrent of the budget constitute 27.69 per cent while the total capital was 72.31 per cent.
According to him, out of the 72.31 per cent, 85 per cent of the capital was dedicated to ongoing projects, adding that only 50 per cent of the capital was for new projects.
He said, the best practice for budget framework was usually 70 per cent for capital and 30 per cent for recurrent.
However, he said it was commendable that FCT budget has 72.32 per cent for capital and 27.69 for overhead.
“This shows that the structure of the budget is in conformity with the best practice”, he said.
Contributing, Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin (Kano) said the leadership of FCTA has done well in the administration of the FCT.
He said senate should support the laudable efforts of the FCT minister and his team to improve infrastructure development by approving the budget overwhelmingly.
In another development, Rivers State N1.48trn 2025 Appropriation Bill passes second reading in Senate on Wednesday.
This followed the presentation of the general principles of the bill at plenary on Wednesday by the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central).
Presenting the lead debate, Bamidele said regulation 4.2.8 of the Emergency Rule 2025 in Rivers State required authorisation for expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue of Rivers for its activities.
He said the budget submission followed declaration of emergency rule in Rivers by President Bola Tinubu on March18 and the subsequent nullification of the state’s 2025 budget by the Supreme Court.
Bamidele said history bestowed on the distinguished senators as statesmen to perform the constitutional duty of appropriation for Rivers given the absence of Rivers House of Assembly to approve the budget proposal.
He said the sum of N324 billion was for infrastructure, both ongoing and new projects, while the sum of N166 billion was proposed for the health sector, including N5 billion for free drugs for treatment of malaria and other common ailments.
“The sum of N75.6 billion is proposed for the educational sector for improving learning environments and ensuring access to free basic education and N32 billion is proposed for agricultural purposes,” he said.
