DAILY TRUST
The federal government voted N2.3 trillion for the scrapped ministries of Niger Delta and Sports Development in the 2025 budget proposals, checks by Daily Trust have revealed.
Our correspondents could not establish whether it was an error or not, but experts said there was no diligence in putting the budget documents together even if at the end of the day it turned out that the monies earmarked were meant for the new Ministry of Regional Development and the National Sports Commission (NSC).
The Niger Delta and sports ministries were scrapped by the government in October when the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced the decision after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The National Sports Commission took over the role of the Ministry of Sports Development.
President Tinubu had last week presented the Appropriation Bill of N49.7 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.
Checks by the Daily Trust also revealed that the budget proposals did not capture the new Ministry of Regional Development.
The reinstated National Sports Commission (NSC) was also not allocated any funds, according to the document.
For the scrapped Ministry of Sports Development, the budget shows an allocation of N95 billion, with N0.9 billion allocated for personnel, N14 billion for overhead and N79.7 billion for capital expenditure.
The Ministry of Regional Development is meant to supervise all the regional development bodies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the North East Development Commission (NEDC), the North West Development Commission (NWDC), the South West Development Commission (SWDC) and the South East Development Commission (SEDC).
However, in the details of the 2025 Appropriation Bill that was released by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, the sum of N2.23 trillion was budgeted for the scrapped Niger Delta Ministry.
A breakdown of the budgetary provision for the ministry shows that personnel cost will gulp N2.205 trillion, while N1.7 billion is budgeted for overhead and N24.5 billion for capital expenditure.
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