Clement Agba, minister of state
for budget and national planning, has given a breakdown of how the federal
government disbursed the N500 billion allocated for COVID-related expenses.
Agba disclosed this at the
COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP) conference organised by
Connected Development (CODE) in partnership with BudgIT, a civic advocacy
organisation, in Abuja.
On Monday, BudgIT had said there
are no comprehensive details of disbursed COVID-19 funds on the government’s
open treasury platform.
But speaking at the conference on Thursday, Agba said out of the N500 billion for COVID-19, N288 billion has been released to implementing agencies.
According to NAN, he also noted
that the total package includes “N500 billion stimulus from special federal
government account in the budget, and N1.8 trillion through financial
institutions”.
“From the N500 billion stimuli
from the revised 2020 budget, there is provision of N126 billion to build
resilient health system in Nigeria to prevent possible loss of lives,” he said.
“The government set out to
improve health infrastructure by building molecular labs in 52 federal medical
centres and teaching hospitals across the country.
“Others include provision of isolation
centres, paying hazard allowance for health professionals, providing personal
protective equipment for security agencies and hospitals to continue their
operations, supporting agencies like the NCDC, NAFDAC, among others, to play
their roles in combating this pandemic.
“Most of the MDAs received at
least 50 percent of the budget for projects. Like ministry of agriculture,
which has N34 billion as budget for rural roads, was given 50 percent of that amount and they
were also given 50 percent of the amount for land preparation, which is N1.25
billion.
“The mass rural electrification
and solar power strategy had N6.2 billion released to them; FERMA received 30
billion for bridges and major roads; ministry of trade and investment got N75
billion MSME programmes, while federal medical centres with about N49 billion
budget, received 50 percent of that amount allocated.”
Agba said the government provided
mass rural electrification and solar power projects, while the president also
directed the disbursement of cash to additional one million households, as part
of social intervention programmes to protect vulnerable persons affected by the
pandemic.
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