2022 Budget: Health, Defence, Transport, Works Get Highest Capital Allocations
The Ministries of Works and Housing, Defence, Health and Education are to get the highest capital allocation in the 2022 federal budget.
This is according to the 2022 Budget Call Circular released on Tuesday night.
The circular sets out the requirements and instructions that must be satisfied and followed in the preparation of the 2022 Federal Government Budget Proposal.
Details of the capital allocation as contained in the budget call circular signed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, showed that the Ministry of Works and Housing was to get the highest allocation of N352.65bn.
The N352.65bn represents about 20 per cent of the entire N1.75tn capital allocation for MDAs in the 2022 budget.
This is followed by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning with N158.07bn while Defence with N128.94bn, Transport with N12.6bn; Health with N108.29bn and Education with N100.75bn.
Other ministries with high capital allocation are Water Resources which had N86.72bn; Aviation N69.3bn; Agriculture N83.82bn; Trade and Investment N51.08bn; Science and Technology N48.33bn; Power N40.25bn; Police Affairs N32.34bn; Interior N39.64bn and Presidency N25.82bn.
There were also Information and Culture which had N10.44bn; Communications N10.88bn; National Security Adviser N43.14bn; Labour N19.65bn; Mines and Steel N11.55bn among others.
It stated, “The aggregate amount available for capital expenditures in the 2022 budget is N3.61tn.
This represents 26 per cent of total expenditure and is 17.3 per cent less than the 2021 provision of N4.13tn.
“The 2022 provision comprises of N1.76tn for MDAs, N366.14bn capital supplementation, N345.78bn capital component of statutory transfers, N10bn capital component of the Special Intervention Programme, N425.02bn capital budget of GOEs, N62.24bn for donor/grant funded expenditures and N638.32bn funded by project-tied loans.”
The document stated that the provision for development expenditure had been constrained by low revenues, increasing personnel and pension, as well as debt service costs.
It explained further that the continual provision of fuel and electricity subsidies was a major drainer to overall government revenues.
The document also disclosed that the Federal Government had barred its Ministries, Department and Agencies from introducing fresh capital projects to the 2022 fiscal period.
In allocating capital budget resources, the government urged MDAs to accord priority to ongoing projects, especially those nearing completion that fitted into government’s current priorities.
In line with the objectives of the Medium Term National Development Plan, the government stated that projects with likelihood of completion not later than 2024, should be considered in prioritising capital projects.
