Senate Cttee okays N140bn 2025 budget for North Central Devt Commission

• tasks commission on judicious utilization of fund

By Haruna Salami and Musa Baba Adamu

The Senate Committee on North Central Development Commission (NCDC), has endorsed the N140billion 2025 budgetary provision for the commission and charged it to utilize the appropriation judiciously when approved by the Senate .
Endorsement of N140billion NCDC’s 2025 budget by Senator Titus Zam led Committee, followed defence of the proposal by the Managing Director of the commission , Mr Tsenyil Yiltsen before it yesterday.
Senator Titus Zam who announced the approval in his capacity as Chairman, said : “ After a careful look at the issues contained in the budget and the eloquent presentation by the MD and his team, the committee has approved the budget of N140 billion as presented by the Commission”.
Mr Yiltsen in his presentation before the committee said the N140billion was the envelope given them for the fiscal year by the federal government out of which N100billion is earmarked for capital expenditure across the six states in the zone and the federal capital territory and the balance of N40billion for recurrent expenditure covering overhead and personnel cost .He explained that the N100billion is not tied to one specific project but numerous ones across the six states .
He said : “ We have eight thematic areas in terms of infrastructure deployment which are security, Agriculture , mining, environmental degradation , education, health , road construction etc “
He assured the committee that the commission under his leadership would ensure even execution of projects across the all the states in the zone and the federal capital territory .
“ We will go out for proper needs assessment in all the states and will be fair in the distribution of these projects in all the six states and FCT”, he said .
He added that the bulk of the N40billion earmarked for recurrent expenditure , will be used to pay salaries of proposed 200 staff to be recruited after approval by the office of Head of Service .
Though impressed by the presentation made by the NCDC boss, the Committee however urged the commission to ensure judicious utilization of the N140billion when finally approved by the Senate , particularly the N100billion , earmarked for capital expenditure .