By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives’ Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has approved a N288 billion supplementary budget for the FCT Administration (FCTA).
Naijablitznews.com reports that in a letter transmitted from President Bola Tinubu to Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, the budget includes N8 billion from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N280 billion from miscellaneous revenues. This supplementary budget aims to cover additional funds needed for FCTA projects.
During the budget defense meeting, Chairman House Committee on FCT, Rep. Aliyu Muktar Betara, explained that the urgency of passing the budget was to support critical development projects in the FCT.
Betara further stated that the FCT Minister had confirmed that most of the budget’s requests for additional funds were already part of the 2024 statutory budget passed by the National Assembly. He also clarified that there are no new projects, except for two new line items.
The Committee agreed to present the report during Thursday’s plenary, as the projects need to begin immediately due to time constraints.
In President Tinubu’s letter to Speaker Abbas, he highlighted the progress made on ongoing projects in the FCT:
“Indeed, residents of the Federal Capital Territory are in high spirits and excited by the scale of ongoing projects within the City Centre and across the six Area Councils. The socio-economic impact is gratifying and shows that the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda is being fulfilled quickly”, the statement reads in part.
The President also emphasized the importance of capital projects in the 2024 budget of the FCT, which will significantly impact infrastructure and manpower development.
He stressed that some critical projects were left out of the 2024 budget and must be included to meet the 30 per cent procurement requirement under the law.