From Uche Usim, Abuja
Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, yesterday gave details on how the 2016 budget was being implemented, revealing that N753,663,667,464 has so far been shared to various ministries being capital allocation as at October 31.
A tabulated presentation to journalists showed that the Power Ministry got the lion’s share of the allocation with N209,246,760,165, while the Petroleum Ministry received the least allocation of N2,413,847,044, even as Nigerians continue to lament the poor power supply over the last 15 months.
This was as the Defence Ministry was allocated N69,512,363,730 while Transport Ministry has so far received N30,540,042,428. According to the breakdown of expenditures, Agriculture got N29,578,929,050, Water Resources Ministry got N25,201,857,951 and the Interior Ministry has so far received N21,210,059,596. Health Ministry got N18,472,539,524 and N16,743,672,981 went to the Education Ministry while Niger Delta Ministry got a slice of N8,161,196,486.
Science and Technology Ministry has so far received N6,681,349,721 and Mines and Steel got N3,360,000,000. Petroleum Ministry got N2,413,847,044, while others cumulatively received N312,511,048,789.
Recall that the Appropriation Bill 2016 seeks to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N6,077,680,000,000.
Of the figure, N351,370,000,000 is for Statutory Transfers, N1,475,320,000,000 is for Debt Service while N2,648,600,000,000 is for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure.
The sum of N1,845,540,000,000 inclusive of N157,150,000,000 Capital Expenditure in Statutory Transfers and N86,000,000,000 as Interest on Capitalised Loans, is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on December 31, 2016.
The paltry allocation to education is indicative of how unimportant education is to buhari and doom for the country.