N44m has been approved by the senate as an increment to the Niger Delta development agency, and this addition has ultimately moved the supposed budget from N1,911,800,000,000 to N1,911,844,833,046. overhead expenditures, personal costs, and internal capital estimates were taken into consideration by the Senate, therefore prompting an increase in the budget.
It took into account the N44.8 million, which was the only separation between the commission’s revenue projections and the amount that was approved by the national assembly. The Appropriation ACT of 2024 was a tool that guided the Senate’s decision, and subsequently, the following was recommended as the expenditure statistics.
Personal expenditure was calculated to be 38,545,349,193, internal capital expenditure 8,785,574,130, overhead expenditures 29,246,506,753, development projects 835,267,402,970 and Legacy critical projects which are to be funded through borrowing 1,000,000,000,000, all of these amounted to a total of N1,911,844,833,046.
The NDDC’s 2024 project is supposed to end on the 31st of December, 2024, according to the Senate. on Monday, 10 June 2024, the commission presented N1.91 trillion naira before the senate for the Niger Delta development project.
According to Dr Samuel Ogbuku, the project has been introduced to solve the job problems, security and total well-being of the youths and women, education and infrastructure of the Niger Delta people, and he said, ” the proposed budget seeks to move the commission from transaction to transformation and is a product of the participatory budgeting process that involved all the major stakeholders in the Niger Delta region with the team ‘ budget of renewed hope agenda’.
While the bill was being passed, the chairman of the committee, senator Ekpenyong Asuquo, submitted the report less than 12 hours after the budget was defended by the committee.
Senator Solomon Adeola who was not satisfied with the budget questioned the performance of the 2023 budget, according to him the performance of the 2023 budget has not been properly assessed and it should be done before the senate could go on with approving the 2024’s budget.
According to him, approving the 2024 budget only amounts to process abuse for a new project to be approved without formally and properly accessing the previous year’s success
“there is no mention of the performance of the 2023, so on what is the budget of the 2024 predicated?” Olamilekan, another member of the senate asked.
Raising concerns on the same issue, Senator Adamu Aliero also explained that the proposed 1 trillion to be borrowed by the agency was not the actual borrowing plan
He said, ” the NDDC is a child of necessity and must use the money appropriated to serve the need of the people, even as the budget is far more than two states and we have not seen much”
In defense of the NDDC, senator Adams Oshiomhole maintained that things have changed in the NDDC, he further explained that the commission could write to the senate to for borrowing after the budget has been passed into law and he encouraged other lawmakers not to judge the NDDC by its dirty past.
He reminded the senate president of the forensic audit that was scheduled to be carried out on the NDDC, and according to the senator, Jobs done were paid and those that were not done were separated
having gone past the forensic audit procedure, Senator Dickson Seriake urged the lawmakers to support the NDDC. After all procedures, the senate president, Godswill Akpabio, called for all lawmakers to vote, and the budget was then passed into law.
