The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has lamented the poor budgetary provision for the Ministry for 2021.
Akpabio, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs on Tuesday, also rued the budgetary allocations and releases to the ministry over the years.
He said, “The paucity of funds is responsible for the various abandoned and uncompleted projects in the region.
“The N26.6bn proposed for the Ministry of Niger Delta for 2021 is meagre and significantly inadequate in the face of the mandate and goals of the Ministry to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the Niger Delta region.”
Akpabio sought the assistance of the Committee for additional funding to enable the ministry deliver on President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate for the Niger Delta region.
He said, “The capital estimate reveals that the sum of N15,000,000,000 out of N19,533,720,033 for capital infrastructure project was allocated to the East-West Road (Sections I- IV) alone, on the order of Mr. President.
“This leaves N4,533,720,033 for the other infrastructural projects.”
Akpabio noted that inadequate funding of the ministry has led to derailment of the programmes of engagement of youths and women of the Niger Delta region.
“It has reduced training for knowledge acquisition, poor performance and protracted delay in project delivery and intermittent disruption by youths who chase away contractors from sites,” he said.
The breakdown of the N26,592,560,040 budget proposed for the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry showed N1,443,111,339 for Personnel, N877,089,120 for Overhead and N24,272,359,581 for Capital.
Giving a breakdown of the 2020 budget performance, the minister said “a total sum of N23.45bn was approved as 2020 appropriation after the national budget was amended due to the effect of Covid -19 pandemic.
“The capital overheads and personnel expenditure budget were in the sum of N21.71bn, N600.1m and N1.14bn respectively.
“The releases in respect of capital, overheads and personnel expenditure were N10.86bn, N432.64m and N1.026bn, representing 50 per cent, 72 per cent and 99 per cent respectively.
“The performance in terms of funds released is 10 per cent, 86 per cent and 99 per cent for capital, overheads and personnel expenditure respectively.”
Akpabio was accompanied by the Minister of State, Senator Tayo Alasoadura and other top officials of the Ministry to the budget defence.
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