27 August 2013, Abuja – The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, said the body would spend about N230 billion before the end of the year on various projects.
The Chairman of the SURE-P Implementation Committee, Christopher Kolade, made the announcement on Monday in Abuja while briefing newsmen at the end of the committee’s plenary meeting.
“Last year our budget was N180 billion and we did not spend all of it.
“So the new fund for this year was still N180 billion and because of what we did not spend last year our budget for this year was N273 billion”.
“The indication that we have today is that if work goes on at the pace at which it goes on now it is very likely that by the end of the year we would have spent between N220 and N230 billion on all of these projects,” he said.
The committee, according to Mr. Kolade, is charged with the responsibility of managing and reinvesting the Federal Government’s share of savings from the partial removal of the subsidy on fuel in projects and initiatives.
He said that the focus of the committee was to improve the living condition of ordinary Nigerians by monitoring the spending from the savings.
“We are glad to say that the pace of work within the country is something we are satisfied with,” he said.
He said the Federal Government’s share from the savings “is approximately 41 per cent, while 54 per cent is shared by the states and Local Governments and the remaining goes to ecological fund”.
The chairman said that the committee was giving priority to what the fund would be applied to such as infrastructure development, safety net projects, building of railways and roads around the country.
He said the committee could not do much last year because of its slow take-off, but that this year, people had started to notice differences in circumstance.’
“For us that is the way people should be experiencing improvement because the funds were derived from individual Nigerians so it is important we deliver through them some relief as promised by the president,” he said.
– NAN