The Niger Delta Development Commission 2024 Appropriations Bill, totaling N1.91 trillion, was examined and approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The House made its decision after debating a report from the NDDC Committee, which was presided over by Mrs. Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, during Wednesday’s plenary session.
NDDC Managing Director Samuel Ogbuku said the commission will obtain financing for its proposed spending of N1 trillion through loans during his July defense of the commission’s 2024 budget before the House Committee on NDDC.
In order to pay the commission’s ongoing legacy initiatives until 2024, we plan to source a total of N1 trillion. To that end, we have carefully established preparations to diversify our financing sources. Ogboku emphasized that “Investing in critical infrastructure is a key component of our fiscal strategy under the 2024 budget proposals” and that the money would be drawn from development and commercial banks.
“We urge the House to consider the report of the Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission on the issue from the Statutory Revenue Fund of the Niger Delta Development Commission the total sum of N1.911tn, out of which the sum of N38.55bn is for personnel expenditure, while the sum of N29.25bn only is for overhead expenditure,” Ibori-Suenu said in defense of the need to pass the budget.
A lawmaker of the Peoples Democratic Party claims that, for the year ending April 30, 2025, “N8.79 billion is only for internal capital expenditure, the sum of N835.22 billion is only for development projects, and the sum of N1 trillion is only for legacy projects funded by borrowing.”
According to a breakdown of the budget, N1.84 trillion would be spent on development projects by the commission’s head office and the nine states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers.
N2.3 billion is spent on severance payments, N92 billion on medical insurance, N800,52 billion on worker housing, and N531.78 billion on staff welfare.
In addition, there are N1.7 billion in promotion arrears, N1.8 billion in voluntary retirement benefits, N750 million in pensions, and N825.54 million in recruitment services.
The NDDC requested to borrow an additional N1 trillion to finance its development initiatives in the 2024 fiscal year, and President Bola Tinubu recently accepted the request.
At a Niger Delta Stakeholders Summit last week in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, Tinubu, accompanied by Senate President Godswil Akpabio, promised that his administration will make a sustained effort to bring sustainable development to the oil-rich region.
“Mr President is very committed to ensuring the development of the Niger Delta. The Bayelsa-Rivers-Akwa Ibom Road called East-West Road will be tackled.
“The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road started by the President will not only start from Lagos, Mr President has also agreed that it must also take root from Niger Delta simultaneously, then it will get up with the one in Lagos.
“The Niger Delta Development Commission has never had the kind of budget that they are having in 2024. The President has approved that they can go ahead and get a soft loan of N1tn to complete all the other projects that they have in mind to bring quick development to this region. So the MD of NDDC is no longer going to lack funds, it is going to be the issue of commitment.
We will not have people from Abuja coming here to stay in the hotel and requesting to be in NDDC to collect money and take it back to other states of the federation. We are going to spend the money of NDDC right here in the Niger Delta region, ”Akpabio was quoted as saying on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief.”
It is anticipated that the House Committee on Rules and Business would gazette it for Third Reading after adopting the committee’s recommendations, prior to the third reading and passage.
