New Telegraph

Senate wants N9.2bn NASS renovation project prioritised

The Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has asked the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to ensure that the renovation of the National Assembly Complex was treated as a priority project in the implementation of the 2021 Budget.

The committee has also charged the FCTA to ensure the extension of the railway services beyond the present point to enhance easy movement of people across the FCT. These demands came yesterday as the Minister of the FCT, Mallam Muhammad Bello, appeared before the committee to defend the National Priority Budget Proposal of the FCTA for the year 2021.

A whooping sum of N9,250,000,000 was earmarked for the project in the 2020 budget, but the project could not take off due to the opposition mounted against it by many Nigerians and the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which triggered a sharp decline in national revenue.

The project has been rolled over into the 2021 Appropriation Bill and the sum of N9.2 billion has been allocated to it. This is a shortfall of N50,000,000 when compared to the figure earmarked for it in the 2020 budget.

In the course of the budget defence session, a member of the committee, Senator Abdullahi Gobir (APC/Sokoto) drew the attention of the committee to the state of infrastructure in the National Assembly Complex and the need to expedite action on the proposed renovation project.

M e a n w h i l e , N45,527,118,338 has been proposed as National Priority Capital Budget for the FCT for the fiscal year 2021. The sum is to sustain the implementation of critical projects in the Federal Capital City (FCC) and the Satellite towns.

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