Again, Senate Approves Extension Of 2024 Capital Budget Implementation To December 2025
The Senate on Tuesday approved a shift in deadline for the implementation of the capital component of the 2024 federal budget to December 31, 2025.
The shift in deadline came vide an amendment to the year’s Appropriation Act at plenary, which was expeditiously passed.
It was the second time the legislature would be approving such extention. It was first extended to June 30, 2025.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Solomon Adeola, sponsored the extension bill and was overwhelmingly supported by other senators at plenary.
Senator Adeola said the extension was necessary to allow the federal government to complete many of its ongoing capital projects captured under the 2024 budget.
“We must not allow these important national projects to be abandoned due to time constraints.
“Extending the implementation period will ensure value for money and improved service delivery,” he argued.
Other senators who contributed to the debate agreed that the extension would help
optimise the government’s capital expenditure and enable it complete key infrastructure projects.
There were however, dissenting views from some opposition senators like Abdul Ningi, Seriake Dickson and Minority Leader, Abba Moro.
Ningi expressed frustration over the executive’s poor budget execution record and the prolonged delay in releasing funds to MDAs.
According to him, complaints from lawmakers in the past few months over implementation lapses were often ignored by the executive arm.
“Recall, this was an issue before the Senate in both plenary and in an executive session last year.
“Also recall, in March year, this was an issue. The Senate mandated the leadership of the Senate to liaise with the Minister of Finance, the Accountant-General of the Federation with a view to resolving this issue of payment.
“Three months down the line, nothing has happened, and nothing has changed,” Ningi observed.
The PDP, Bauchi central senator also said there were allegations of cherry picking of funding of projects against the Finance Minister.
In his contribution, Abba Moro said the National Assembly risked becoming an embarrassment in the eyes of Nigerians if it fails to hold the Ministry of Finance accountable.
“We must take the bull by the horns on this issue of appropriation. Unless we take it up very seriously with the Ministry of Finance, this parliament will be an embarrassment onto itself.
“I am reluctantly supporting the extension of the 2024 capital component of the budget. As has been observed, many contractors who had money had committed their funds into executing projects.
“Many contractors who don’t have money have stalled in the execution of the projects, and we have the 2025 budget before us.
“Even those who have funds will be unwilling to commit their money into these projects because of the fear that they will not be paid,” Moro said.
Bayelsa West senator, Seriake Dickson, described the situation as very sad, saying the government has effectively ground to a halt.
“Clearly, nobody is satisfied with the situation we have found ourselves in. Government has grounded, that’s what it means,” Dickson said.
According to him, contractors who have done their jobs with their own resources are not being paid. He observed that the people have not been getting the benefits of the federal budget.
“And guess what, we are talking of the capital components. The recurrent component, which is for the bureaucrats, has gotten to them 100 percent.
“The component that has not been released, that is still stagnant, is the real one that goes to the people of Nigeria for the development of our country — for all the people that we represent. It is a very sad situation,” he submitted.
The opposition senators accused the adminstartion of prioritising politics of 2027 election over governance.
Again, Senate Approves Extension Of 2024 Capital Budget Implementation To December 2025 is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
