Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has presented a proposed budget of N322.6biilion for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for its operations in 2014 to the House of Representatives.
The letter forwarded to the Reps on Wednesday, revealed that the sum of N15.8bn was set aside for personnel cost. The sum of N10.1bn was earmarked for recurrent expenditure; capital expenditure was assigned a sum of N2.2bn, while N295bn will be spent on projects and other contractual obligations of the NDDC.
In the president’s letter which was read to lawmakers by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Emeka Ihedioha, who presided over proceedings, Jonathan observed that the 2014 budget for the commission is 2.1 per cent higher than the 2013 budget.
The schedule for the budget’s second reading and subsequent debate has not been announced by the lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the second reading of the 2014 budget of the Federal Capital Territory Administration was also postponed until further notice without any reason.
The FCDA put forward a budget of N271.1bn for 2014. It proposed to spend N49.2bn on personnel cost, N62.8bn on overhead cost and the balance of N159bn would go for capital projects in the FCT.
Also, five new bills ― People’s Bank of Nigeria Act (Repeal) Bill, 2014; Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (Guarantee) Act (Repeal) Bill, 2014; Federal Savings Banks Act (Repeal) Bill, 2014; Loan (State Development) Act (Repeal) Bill; and Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry Act (Repeal) Bill, 2014 ― were presented before the House for consideration.
