FIJ
The Bola Tinubu administration plans to allocate a fresh N5.4 billion for the Presidential Villa’s maintenance in the proposed 2025 budget, FIJ has gathered.
This expense appears under “State House Headquarters Expenditure” in the budget presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday, standing out as a separate line item.
This is listed as a new project distinct from the N4 billion earmarked for Aso Villa renovations in the 2023 supplementary budget and an additional N500 million for the same purpose in the 2024 fiscal year.
The allocation is also different from other less prominent and ongoing renovations in the 2025 budget. These include N12.8 million for procuring and maintaining equipment in the State House Central Gymnasium, N16 million for ongoing renovations of the State House Security Barracks and N12.8 million for upgrades to the State House Library.
It is currently unclear how much of the renovations planned for the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years were executed. Per the Budget Performance Document available on the Open Treasury Portal, the presidency had utilised 59% (N332 billion) of its N550.5 billion budget as of November 2024.
The total allocation to the presidency in the 2024 budget stood at about N360 billion. The senate had on Wednesday extended the execution of the same 2024 budget to June 2025 to cover for the implementation lapses.
On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu presented his administration’s proposed 2025 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly. Tagged the ‘Restoration Budget: Security, Peace and Building Prosperity’, this is Tinubu’s second full budget since taking office in May 2023.
The budget projects N34.8 trillion in revenue against total expenditures of N47.90 trillion, leaving a deficit of N13 trillion. Notably, debt servicing is expected to take N15.81 trillion.
The lion’s share of the proposal — N4.91 trillion — is dedicated to defence and security to tackle growing instability and safety concerns. Infrastructure projects follow with an allocation of N4.06 trillion, while education and healthcare receive N3.5 trillion and N2.48 trillion, respectively.
Tinubu further proposed N825.90 billion for infrastructure in the education sector, N402 billion for healthcare investment and N282.6 billion for the Basic Healthcare Fund.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN FIJ
