Senate Approves FCT Supplemental Budget Of N98.5 Billion

A supplemental budget of N98.5 billion has been approved by the Senate for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the year 2024. The N1.2 trillion budget approved by the National Assembly in March is in addition to this amount.

The Senate read for the third time and passed the bill titled, “A Bill for an Act to authorize the issue from the Federal Capital Territory Administration Statutory Revenue Fund of the FCTA accounts, a total sum of N98.5 billion for capital projects for the service of the FCT Abuja for the financial year ending 31st December 2024”

The passage was sequel to the presentation of the bill the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Osita Ngwu, PDP, Enugu West.

According to him, the allocation includes: N48.7 billion is for engineering services, N18 billion for education secretariat, N16 billion for public buildings, and N16 billion for transportation department.

Following the committee’s report, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio put the bill to a voice vote, with the majority of lawmakers voting in favour of its third reading.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu had forwarded the supplementary budget to both chambers of the National Assembly for approval March 16.

Initially, the Senate had stepped down the N98.5 billion supplementary budget last Wednesday because of lack of detailed information on the sourcing and allocation of the funds.

The Senate leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, APC, Ekiti Central who sponsored the Bill, had argued that the budget was essential to complete ongoing infrastructural projects in the FCT, just as he however failed to provide a specific breakdown of the fund’s utilization.