President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the
National Assembly to approve his administration’s external borrowing plan of
$29.96bn for the execution of key programmes and infrastructural projects
across the country.
The
sum, if approved, will be spent on projects in this year’s budget and up till
2018.
The
President also sought legislative approval for virements totalling N180.8bn in
the 2016 budget to cater for votes by some sectors of the economy.
Buhari
made the requests in two separate letters to both the Senate President, Bukola
Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, which were
read to lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly during Tuesday’s
plenary.
The
President, in the external borrowing plan, said the fund would be spent on the
provision of infrastructure in agriculture, health, education, water supply,
growth and employment generation, and poverty reduction through social safety
net programmes, among others.
“The
total cost of the projects and programmes under the borrowing (rolling) plan is
$29.960bn, made up of proposed projects and programmes’ loan of $11.274bn;
special national infrastructure projects, $10.686bn; Eurobonds, $4.5bn; and
Federal Government budget support, $3.5bn,” Buhari stated.
The
President explained that the loan became necessary due to the serious
infrastructural deficit the country was facing.
“Considering
the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced in the country and
the enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of
dwindling resources, and the inability of our annual budgetary provisions to
bridge the deficit, it has become necessary to resort to prudent external
borrowing to bridge the financing gap, which will largely be applied to key
infrastructure projects, namely power, railway and roads projects, among
others,” he stated.
In
the N180bn virement request, the President noted that it would involve the
transfer of the money already appropriated for special intervention programmes,
both recurrent and capital, to critical recurrent and capital items.
According
to him, the request becomes necessary due to a number of reasons, including
shortfalls in provisions for personnel costs, inadequate provision for the
Amnesty Programme, continued requirements to sustain the war against
insurgency, and the depreciation of the naira.
The
President’s letter on the subject read in part, “In the course of implementing
the 2016 Appropriation Act, several MDAs have presented issues pertaining to
salary shortfalls, the settlement of part of which has led to the depletion of
the public service wage adjustment. This vote, which had a provision of
N33,597,400,000, now has a balance of N2,758,296,000.
“The
Committee on Salary Shortfalls, set up by the Minister of Finance, has come up
with a figure of N41,875,983,020 as the amount required to settle salary
shortfalls of non-lPPlS MDAs. Similarly, most of the lPPlS (Integrated Payroll
and Personnel Information System) MDAs have already been notified by the Office
of the Accountant-General of the Federation that they would soon be locked out
of the IPPIS platform, as their personnel cost budgets would not cover salaries
for the rest of the year.
“The
contingency vote of N12bn has a balance of only N1,827,570,443. It is
considered necessary to augment this vote in the light of frequently emerging
contingencies. Only N20,000,000,000 (already fully released) was provided in
the 2016 budget for the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme. Consequently, the
allowances to ex-militants have only been paid up to May 2016. This is creating
a lot of restiveness and compounding the security challenge in the Niger
Delta.”
It
added, “The provision for the NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) in the 2016
budget is inadequate to cater for the number of corps members to be mobilised
this year. In fact, an additional N8.5bn is required to cover the backlog of
129,469 corps members who are currently due for call-up but would otherwise be
left out till next year due to funding constraints. Similarly, the provision
for meal subsidy for the Unity Colleges is inadequate for the number of
students in the schools.”
A
breakdown of the virement proposal showed that N71.8bn is for public service
wage adjustment; N35bn for the Amnesty Programme; N19.8bn for the mobilisation
of remaining batches of youth corps members for the year, among others.
The
President added, “You may also wish to be informed that the Federal Ministry of
Power, Works and Housing has also requested for the virement of the sum of
N300m appropriated under the 2016 appropriation of the Transmission Company of
Nigeria for the construction of the 132KVA substation at Gwaram, Jigawa State,
with Project Code No. TCN 018023829, and the construction of two units of 60MVA
132/33 in Gagarawa, Jigawa State.
“However,
it was observed that while the line to be vired from exists in the budget book
published by National Assembly, the lines to be vired to do not exist. It is,
therefore, recommended that the sum of N300m meant for the construction of the
132KVA substation at Gwaram, Jigawa State be vired to budget line TCN 018021775
for the reconstruction of fallen transmission towers and replacement of glass
insulators, etc., which have an appropriation of N4,880,000,000.”
Source:The Punch
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