07 March 2014, Abuja – As other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) groan under inadequate funding in the 2014 budget, the federal government has disclosed that it will spend not less than N268 billion on the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).
It added that it will expend a whopping sum of N2 billion for the enlightenment Nigerians on the programme.
The Chairman of SURE-P, General Martin Luther Agwai (rtd), disclosed this yesterday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to defend its 2014 budget.
He told the Dakuku Peterside-led committee that the 2014 SURE-P budget comprises the expected inflow of N15 billion per month for 12 months (N180 billion) and estimated unspent balance from 2013 (N88,370 billion).
According to him, sub-heads allocations of the estimate showed that the Ministries of Niger Delta, Works and Transport are the bulk spenders with N30 billion earmarked for the section I-IV of the East-West Road, (N100 billion by the Ministry of Niger Delta.
On its part, the Ministry of Works is expected to spend the following on the corresponding roads: Abuja-Lokoja (12.5 billion), Benin-Ore-Shagamu (N10 billion), Kano-Maiduguri dualisation/section I-V (N12.5 billion), Port Harcourt-Enugu-Onitsha (N11 billion), Second Niger Bridge/counterpart funding (N10 billion), Oweto Bridge (N7 billion), Special Presidential Intervention (N12 billion), Calabar-Ikom-Ogoja-Katsina Ala Road (N5 billion) and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (N20 billion).
The Ministry of Transport would also plough funds into rail projects as follows: (N43 billion) for Lagos-Kano (N5 billion), Port Harcourt-Maiduguri (N16 billion) and Abuja-Kaduna (N22 billion).
In other sub-heads, Social Safety Nets (N68,670 billion), SURE-P board consultancy and logistics (N1.2 billion), monitoring and evaluation (N500 million), Federal Capital Territory (N23 billion), Abuja Rail Mass Transit Project (N10 billion) and Nyanya labour camp, Wasa and Mamusa West districts and other construction works in FCT (N13 billion). However, Peterside cautioned the SURE-P management board against embarking on unsustainable projects. He said programmes should be people-oriented.
“We must ensure that these ideas are sustainable overtime. A good number of the proposal in my opinion don’t seem sustainable.” Peterside (Rivers/APC) told the Agwai-led SURE-P board at the meeting.
– Muhammad Bello, This Day
