The leadership of Nigeria’s National Assembly has commended the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Musa Bello, on the giant strides his administration has so far recorded, by providing several infrastructures in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
The Senate Committee Chairman on FCT, Senator Smart Adeyemi, made this commendation during the presentation of the 2022 FCT Statutory Budget to the Joint Committees of the FCT, at the National Assembly Complex, Three-Arm Zone, Abuja.
Adeyemi said the number of multi-billion-Naira infrastructural projects being executed by the FCT Administration under the leadership of the current Minister is unparalleled.
He said that both committees of the Senate and House of Representatives of the FCT are impressed by the number of ongoing projects being completed by the FCT Administration.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the FCT said that the FCT Administration did not fall into the temptation of abandoning projects initiated by previous Administrations, a gesture he described as remarkable.
The FCT Minister, Mallam Musa Bello said the FCT Administration has proposed the sum of N607,952,023,580.00 for the 2022 Statutory Budget estimate. This will enable the Administration complete ongoing critical projects and provide state-of-art equipment to aid security Agencies in discharging their statutory duties.
He said that out of the total sum, N393,182,2067,614 representing 64.67 percent is for capital expenditure; N76,569,904,856 representing 12.59 percent is for the personnel cost; while the sum of N138,199,851,110 representing 22.73 percent is being spent as an overhead cost.
The Minister stated that most of the projects embarked upon by the government, which the Administration intends to complete before the end of the tenure of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government would impact positively the socioeconomic well-being of the residents of the territory.
Projects
Some of the ongoing projects include the rehabilitation and expansion of the Outer Southern Expressway; the Expansion and Extension of the Inner Southern Expressway; and the construction of Southern Parkway from Christian Center, B6, B12.
Other projects are the reconstruction and dualization of the lower Usuam Dam-Gurara road, the provision of Engineering infrastructure to Maitama II District, the provision of rolling stock and provision of other phases of the Abuja Light Rail project, as well as the construction of Southern Expressway to Kuje Road (S105) respectively.
The Minister said the FCT Administration has allocated the sum of N175.5 billion to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) for the provision of infrastructure; N73.8 billion for the Transportation sector; while education takes N52.4 billion.
Other sectors include Health with a total sum of N36 billion; Environmental takes N12.9, while Water and Agriculture sectors go home with N9.6 billion and N8.9 billion respectively.
Olusola Akintonde
