By Mercy Aikoye
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike on Monday presented the FCT 2024 Statutory Budget proposalof N1,147,780,61 0,283.00 to the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on FCT.
The total sum for the fiscal framework comprises of proposed distributable revenue of N510,364,426,028.00 and non-distributable revenue of N637,416,184,256.00.
A break down of the total expenditure shows N726,338,232,759.00, representing 63.28% is proposed as Capital Expenditure for the year 2024, showing 44% increase over the 2023 revised appropriation of the sum of N406,298,063,083.00.
Similarly, a total sum of 421,442,377,524 representing 36.72% is proposed as Recurrent Expenditure for the 2024 fiscal year.
Also N280,527,373,668.00 representing (24.44% ) is proposed as overhead costs for the 2024 fiscal year, against an appropriation of the sum of N135,413,919,180.00 in 2023 fiscal year, which shows an increase of the sum of N145,113,454,488.64 .00(52%).
Presenting the Budget estimates to the both Senate and House Committees on FCT during separate meetings, Wike revealed that the focus of the capital budget is mainly on completion of on-going projects that have high impact on service delivery to the FCT residents.
He explained that the Distributable Revenue refers to those revenue items, the expenditure of which are distributed across activities of the Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) while the Non-Distributable Revenue refers to inflow of funds for dedicated purposes such as the China Exim Bank Loan for the Abuja light Rail Project, the UBEB Counterpart Fund, Earnings for Covid-19, SUKUK Loan, etc; whereas the Non-Distributable Revenue heads are not available for general expenditure as they are dedicated to specific projects.
According to him, “the FCT 2024 Statutory Budget preparation aligned with the Federal Government Budget parameters, and prepared within the context of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
“The Budget proposal has also taken into cognizance the estimated revenue accruing to the FCT through the Federation Account and recognizes other in-house efforts to boost revenue generation capabilities in FCT.”
“For the Capital Expenditure, the FCDA is allocated the sum of N457 Billion and STDD the sum of N116 Billion while other SDAs were allocated the balance sum of N153.3 Billion for their Capital Expenditure to address critical areas like On-Going Road Construction, Completion of Water Treatment Plant and related facilities as well as few new projects.
