By Abubakar Yunusa
The federal government has proposed to spend about N23.1 billion on the “rehabilitation and repairs” of airport facilities across the country next year.
Details of the proposal are contained in the budget for the 2024 fiscal year presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.
The budgetary proposal implies that about 36.5 per cent of the N63.3 billion allocated to the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development will be spent on the rehabilitation of the country’s dilapidated airport facilities next year.
From this amount, a review of the budget document published on the country’s budget office website indicated that N21.0 billion has been earmarked for the rehabilitation and “repairs of airports and aerodromes”, while the rehabilitation of “air navigational equipment” is expected to gulp N2.1 billion.
An aerodrome is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither. This location is described as a high-risk environment.
In November, Mr Tinubu presented a budget of N27.5 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year to the National Assembly.
The budget, dubbed ‘Budget for the Renewed Hope’, is designed to accelerate economic growth, and human capital development, and also reduce poverty and insecurity.
The president also said the 2024 budget will address issues in the education sector such as the establishment of a sustainable model of funding tertiary education and implementation of the Student Loan Scheme scheduled to become operational by January 2024.
According to Mr Tinubu, based on the parameters and fiscal assumptions, the budget recurrent expenditure will gulp N9.92 trillion, capital expenditure is N8.7 trn, deficit projected at N9.18trn and debt servicing will be N8.25 trillion.
Nevertheless, a review of the 2024 appropriation bill by analysts has also highlighted some significant concerns amid perceived duplication of items, poor/vague representation and absence of Bill breakdown of items captured in the budget across ministries, departments and agencies.
By the budget breakdown reviewed, the total allocation to the aviation ministry is pegged at N39.80 billion; the Nigerian Meteorological Agency is to get N13.2 billion; Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, would get N5.5 billion; and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau got allocation of N4.81 billion.
Meanwhile, specific details of the ministry’s allocation revealed that items such as vehicles and office furniture would gulp N50 million while N1.6 billion is earmarked for security equipment purchases.
Similarly, over N196 million is allocated for refreshments, welfare packages, and sporting activities, among other listed items tagged as “miscellaneous”.
