Senate okays N98.5bn supplemtary budget for FCT

The Senate on Tuesday approved a supplementary budget of N98.5 billion for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for 2024. This amount is in addition to the N1.2 trillion budget passed by the National Assembly in March.
The Senate okayed the bill titled, “A Bill for an Act to authorize the issue from the Federal Capital Territory Administration Statutory Revenue Fund of the FCTA accounts, a total sum of N98.5 billion for capital projects for the service of the FCT Abuja for the financial year ending 31st December 2024” for the third reading at plenary on Tuesday.
The passage followed the Senate’s consideration and adoption of the report from the Committee on FCT on the Supplementary Bill.
According to the report presented by Mohammed Ibrahim, the Senator representing Yobe South, the allocation includes: N48.7 billion is for engineering services, N18 billion for education secretariat, N16 billion for public buildings, and N16 billion for transportation department.
Following the committee’s report, Senate President Godswill Akpabio put the bill to a voice vote, with the majority of lawmakers voting in favor of its third reading.
President Bola Tinubu had transmitted the supplementary budget to both chambers of the National Assembly for approval on March 16. Initially, the Senate had stepped down the N98.5 billion supplementary budget last Wednesday, citing a lack of detailed information on the sourcing and allocation of the funds.
Though Opeyemi Bamidele, the Senate leader who sponsored the Bill argued that the budget was essential to complete ongoing infrastructural projects in the FCT. He, however failed to provide a specific breakdown of the fund’s utilization.