BY KENNETH EZE
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, Friday in Abuja said the Federal Government paid priority attention to defence, health, education and infrastructure sectors in the 2022 budget by allocating the sum of N5.93 trillion to them.
Ahmand said the Federal Government allocated N2.41 trillion and N1.45 trillion to the defence and infrastructure sectors respectively.
She offered the explanations during the “Public Presentation and Breakdown of the Highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Bill.”
She pointed out that the N2.14 trillion allocated to the defence and security sectors includes recurrent and capital expenditure for the Military, Police, Intelligence and Para-Miltary.
According to her some of the projects to be funded with the allocation include balance payment for the procurement of 3 X JF – 17 Thunder Aircraft, support equipment and spares including targeting Pod for JF – 17, complete with aircraft arms and ammunition (N22.08bn), procurement of 30/32/35 metre hydro survey ship and landing ship tank (N9.69bn) and procurement of 3 X AW109 helicopters and part payment for procurement of 1 X AW139 Helicopter (N1 billion).
Other budget subheads are the Completion of Naval War College complex, which got N4.4 billion, and the upgrade of the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital Ojo t which N1.4 billion was allocated.
Similarly, the sum of N1.45 trillion allocated for infrastructure was said to be provisions for Works and Housing, Power (inclusive of Power Sector Recovery Programme provisions), Transport, Water Resources and Aviation.
On health and education, she stated that the sum of N820.2 billion was allocated to the health sector, while the sum of N1.29 trillion was allocated to the education sector, which amounts to 7.9 per cent of the total budget.
The bulk provision is broken down to; N875.93 billion for the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies for their recurrent and capital expenditure, N108.10 billion for Universal Basic Education Commission, and N306.00 billion for transfers to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
She said, “For the health sector, we made a provision of N820.2 billion. This is for the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies, including hazard allowances for the medical personnel. We also provided N54.87 billion Gavi/Immunisation funds, including Counterpart Funding for Donor Supported Programmes and Global Fund.
“We also provided N54.05 billion for Transfer to Basic Healthcare Provision Fund. The BHCPF has been on statutory transfer since 2020 which means that it is on auto pilot so they get the one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.”
The Minister also said that N863 million was designated for social development and poverty reduction programmes in the 2022 budget.
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