FCTA plans to spend N299b in 2021

The Federal Capital Territory Administration is proposing to spend the sum of N299,963, 491.46 for the 2021 fiscal year.

This was contained in the 2021 Statutory Budget Proposal presented by the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, to the Senate Committee on the FCT on Tuesday at the National Assembly complex.

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Bello explained that the sum of N136,312,350,743.21, representing 45.44 per cent of the total budget, is earmarked for recurrent expenditure with  N74,523,382,813.15 going for personnel cost.

The minister revealed that this sum represents a 15 p[ere cent increase over the 2020 appropriation to accommodate the payment of staff promotion arrears from 2017 to 2020 and the imminent appointment of mandate secretaries,   while N61,788,967,930.06 is earmarked for overhead costs.

“The sum of N163, 651,140,779.25, representing 54.56 per cent, is proposed for capital expenditure for the development of infrastructure, with emphasis on the completion of ongoing projects. Of this, the sum of N78, 793,795,841.00 is earmarked for the completion of the Abuja Light Rail project and other counterpart funded related projects aimed at enhancing the socio-economic activities of the FCT.

“The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) is allocated the sum of N26.7 billion, of which 26.4 billion is earmarked for ongoing projects while the sum of N330million is for critical new projects,” he said.

Daily Trust gathered that the new projects to be addressed in the 2021 estimates are the rehabilitation of the outer southern expressway, expansion and extension of inner southern expressway, construction of southern parkway and reconstruction and dualisation of Lower Usuma Dam-Gurara road.

Others are the construction of access roads for the Abuja light rail stations and resurfacing of existing roads within the FCT.

The Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD) was allocated N17.7 billion for provision of engineering infrastructure to Kubwa, Bwari, Karshi, Wasa and the extension of Karshi-Apo road.

The transportation sector got the lion share of N83,444,323.037.00, while the education sector  got the sum of N42, 789,238,146.00.

The health sector has an estimate of N26,410,117,719.00, out of which the sum of N23, 815, 435,005.00 is  for recurrent expenditure, which includes the sum of N1.3billion for the Drug Revolving Fund and the sum of N1.2 billion for expenses on COVID-19, while the sum of N2, 594, 682, 714.00 is for capital expenditure.