The Service Wide Vote of the federal government in the 2023 budget has been allocated the sum of N3. 023 trillion.
According to the details of the budget, 1.406 trillion of the above amount would go to personnel; overhead, 780.184 billion; while Capital expenditure was allocated N837.500 billion.
The Service Wide Vote will be administered by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and national Planning.
One of the ministry’s key expenditure, expected to impact the entire economy is the 250 million expenditure for the engagement of a consultant to verify imported petroleum products and to determine daily fuel consumption in the country.
The volume of fuel consumption in the country has been a subject of controversy between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company and other relevant federal government agencies.
Multilateral/bilateral Nigeria-COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme (N-CARES) was allocated the sum of N326.677 billion, in the budget.
Meanwhile the government plans to spend over N30 billion on the installation of Acoustic Sensing Security surveillance system for the Abuja-Kaduna railway, including other items in the 2023 budget.
Other items include: completion of the Abuja-Kaduna railway; completion of the Lagos-Ibadan and its associated additional works; rehabilitation of Itakpe-Ajaokuta rail line and construction of 12 NOS station building and tracks laying works at railway ancillary facilities area agbor, among others.
Details of the 2023 Appropriation Act showed that N126.53 billion has been budgeted for the parent Ministry of Transport.
Of the figure, the Ministry of Transport headquarters got N93.66 billion; Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), N20.45 billion; and National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), gets N5.39 billion.
Allocations to other agencies in the ministry included: National Institute of Transportation, NIT, N4.69; Maritime Academy, Oron,N1.55 billion; while Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria was allocated N775 million.
The government proposed to spend a total of N4.31 billion on the purchase of trains, while N100 billion would be expended on facilitating the Mass Transit scheme.
Procurement and rehabilitation of rolling stock (Narrow Gauge), and rehabilitation of narrow gauge track from Minna to Narrow with extension to the Baro River Port, which are ongoing, would gulp N2.98 billion.
Also, establishment and management of six national freight offices nationwide, which is ongoing gulps N100 million, while N10 million would be spent on education and construction of speed reduction signages using the International Road Assessment Program, CIRAP, with Federal Capital Territory Authority, FCTA.
The federal government has also planned to spend N45 million on rehabilitation of central Air conditioner system, toilets and offices and leakages on the roof, and physical head count of staff of the ministry.
FG pursues National Grazing Reserves Development
The ministry of agriculture is to spend the sum of N372 million on the National Grazing Reserves Development.
The National Livestock Breed Improvement Programme, NALBIP, was allocated a separate N44 million.
The Ministry allocated N160 million to execute a one-kilometer extension road project in the Idu area of Abuja, out of the total allocation of N426. 989 billion.
The asphalting of Ogba-Ebhodia Road in Benin, Edo State was allocated N325 million, while N618.6 million will be spent on land and climate change management for sustainable agriculture.
The government plans to spend N20 million on concessioning of agricultural facilities nationwide, although the facilities were not specified in the budget.
It is also to spend N25 million on supply of rice and grains with no specific locations of markets, silos, local government areas or states.
