Sectoral allocations for 2024 budget released after backlash

The Senate has released the sectoral allocations of the N27.5 trillion budget for 2024 fiscal year.

This is coming amid the controversy over the sketchy details of the budget President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Our correspondent observed that lawmakers were only provided copies of the president’s speech during debate on the budget, a development some members of parliament described as strange.

Legislators had raised concerns over the non-availability of the budget details and called for the suspension of the consideration until the breakdown of the proposed expenditure is provided.

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However, the proposal was passed for second reading in both chambers without lawmakers getting the breakdown of the estimates, including allocations to different sectors.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Friday night released some highlights of the budget, especially the sectoral allocations.

In the fiscal document, the ministries of Works, Finance and Defence got the highest share of the N8.7 trillion capital component of the 2024 budget.

The Ministry of Works gets N521.3 billion, followed by Ministry of Finance with N519.9billion while N308.2 billion was allocated to the Ministry of Defence.

Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is earmarked N304.4 billion while N265.4 billion was proposed for capital projects in the Ministry of Education.

Others are: Ministry of Power N264.2 billion, Government owned Entetprises N820.9 billion, TETFund N665billion Housing and Urban Development N96.9billion, Water Resources N87.7 billion and Police Affairs N69 billion.

The National Assembly under statutory transfers gets N198 billion, Niger Delta Development Commission N324.8 billion, Universal Basic Education N251.4 billion, National Judicial Council N165 billion, North East Development Commission N126 billion and Basic Health Care Provision Fund N125.7 billion.

Under Capital Supplementation, Zonal Intervention otherwise called constituency projects for federal lawmakers gets N100 billion, Special Projects N108 billion, Contingency (capital) N200 billion, Aid and Grants funded projects N685.6billion, National Social Investment Programme Agency N100 billion.