PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
The Federal Government has spent a total of $700 million on debt servicing, according to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun.
The minister stated this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Appropriation on Wednesday.
Edun told the senators that the federal government had progressed in its ongoing forensic investigation into the Nigerian Central Bank’s N30 trillion Ways and Means obtained by the Buhari administration.
He said: “The procurement of electric and CNG buses and conversion kits, more importantly, has been held up by a spike in freight costs.
“It’s just the ingenuity of one of the young men that is in that business that when I’ve got a bulk carrier that has a lower freight cost,.
“Otherwise, the trade cost per bus became daunting, and it made people just hold up to see whether this procurement was profitable for them.”
Edun pointed out that the Federal Government has paid $700 million in debt services for 420 national development agencies and others.
“We are also interrogating the N22.7tn that we met on the ground. We instituted a forensic audit to see the impact.
“We are also interrogating the revenues that are due to us from everybody because we need to.
“The view of the fact that ways and means are going down rather than up, so we are servicing all the debts.”
The Senate called on the Federal Government to intensify efforts to fund the capital components of the country’s three national budgets running concurrently.
Sen. Solomon Adeola, chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, lamented the poor funding of the capital components of the budgets and urged Edun to improve on it.
Adeola said: “It is the capital component of the budgets that will showcase this government largely in terms of performances.
“The capital components tend to showcase various projects that will be executed by this government, and people can say the government is doing this; it’s doing that.
“That is why we are emphasising the performance of the 2024 capital component of the project.”
Adeola pointed out that the N1.84 billion achieved thus far, out of a N9 trillion capital expenditure component, is insignificant.
He added: “I would want you to please look towards this direction. And I want you to do more engagement with the ministries, departments, and agencies of the government.”
Adeola advised the minister to engage more with MDAs because most were unaware of the capital project funding arrangement.
The chairman of the Senate Committee also alluded to the Red Chamber’s plans to hold a public hearing on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, inviting stakeholders in the oil and gas sector, including the Finance Minister.
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