Ministry of Regional Development has solicited the National Assembly’s support for additional funding to enable it to deliver on its mandate.
The superintending Minister, Abubakar Momoh, made the appeal on Tuesday in Abuja when he appeared before the joint committee on regional development to defend the ministry’s budget proposals for 2025.
Mr. Momoh said that the ministry was not resting on its oars in its request for adequate funding.
He said the ministry was desirous of working with and cooperating fully with the committee to achieve an acceptable and workable 2025 budget.
A summarized outline of the ministry’s 2025 budget envelope had a ceiling of N28.9 billion.
According to the minister, this is made up of N24 billion in capital expenditure and N1.6 billion in recurrent expenditure, while N2.7 billion was earmarked for personnel expenditure.
Mr. Momoh expressed regret that the 2025 budget envelope still reflected that of the defunct Ministry of Niger Delta Development, instead of the six regions.
He, however, said the 2025 budget made provision of two billion for youth and women empowerment and capacity-building programmes across the regions.
The minister further stated that one billion Naira was also provided for livelihood support initiatives and N600 million for medical outreach programmes for rural communities.
He said the ‘meager’ capital budgetary ceiling of N24 billion meant that the ministry might be constrained to apply judicious use of the funds by specifically applying some parameters to guide the selection of project executions.
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According to him, the ministry is poised to step down projects with low levels of completion, complete those ongoing, and include the ones that upon completion, will have the highest impacts on the regions.
Mr. Momoh said that the ministry was also keen on reducing the high incidence of abandoned and uncompleted projects while emphasizing human capital development, job creation, and social protection-related projects.
Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Olajide Ipinsagba said the transformation of the former Ministry of Niger Delta Development into the Ministry of Regional Development was a landmark decision.
Senator Ipinsagba said that the decision reflected the Federal Government’s commitment to inclusive and sustainable national development.
He said the broader mandate was a strategic step to addressing the diverse development needs of the regions across the country.
Senator Ipinsagba said that the new ministry would maintain a firm focus on the peculiar challenges faced by the Niger Delta region. According to him, the ministry now serves as a beacon of hope for other regions facing similar development challenges.
Senator Ipinsagba said that the committee would critically evaluate the ministry’s proposal to ensure that its new mandate was reflected in its priorities.
“This means we will be able to support students and caregivers by supporting the development of schools and programmes.
“We will be able to support the development of free education and a number of other research projects.
“This will also be beneficial to the development of school services and other programmes,” he said.
The senator urged the joint committee to set the ministry on the path of achieving its goals of equitable development, economic inclusion and national unity.
He commended the leadership and staff members of the ministry for embracing the expanded role with vision and determination.
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