ABUJA - President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua yesterday, presented a Budget proposal of N2,870,510,042,679 for 2009 fiscal year, with an indication of serious belt tightening in the public service to the National Assembly.

Out of the sum, N1,649,429,453,681 comprising: N140,693,160,103 for Statutory Transfers and N283,646,892,795 for Debt Service has been earmarked for Recurrent Expenditure, while N796,737,536,101 has been voted for Capital Expenditure.

Also in the budget proposal, N77.12billion will be dedicated to the oil rich Niger Delta region. Of the amount, N27.12billion will go to the Niger Delta Development Commission while N50billion would be spent on the newly created Ministry of the Niger Delta, including provisions for enhancing critical infrastructure, environmental protection, youth development and grassroots empowerment.

According to President Yar’Adua, “the new Ministry will invest N28.4billion in the East-West Road to improve accessibility to the region, N92.8million on projects to improve and restore the environment and N18.6billion on other projects, particularly the establishment of two sophisticated skills acquisition centres to help the youths from the region acquire practical skills relevant to the energy and petrochemicals industry”.

The President also indicated his administra tion’s resolve to cut wastes when he noted that in view of the challenging international and local environment, our Administration has adopted certain policy measures to ensure that the 2009 Budget reflects these new realities.

“Accordingly, under the 2009 Budget Proposal, recurrent expenditure by way of overheads is being frozen, in the main, at the 2008 level or substantially cut, in a number of cases.

Investments in non-priority capital outlays such as the acquisition of new vehicles, and the construction and furnishing of new headquarters for MDAs, have been suspended. Excessive expenditure on international travels and training has been curbed by 50% with expenditure on local travels slashed by 25%.

Recurrent expenditure on personnel costs will also be controlled with the full deployment of IT, by way of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), to all MDAs. Payments for goods and services will be discharged through the e-payment system to increase efficiency and reduce avenues for corruption.

“These new policy measures apply across all MDAs and will also be fully applicable to all parastatals and agencies that are not funded by the Treasury. While these policy measures will require significant adjustment across the public sector, they allow greater emphasis to be given to enhancing capital expenditure on on-going projects in key priority areas, despite the reduced resources available to the government in the 2009 fiscal year”, he continued.

He further told the joint sitting of Senators and the House of Representatives members that “in line with the above philosophy, the 2009 Budget provides 91% of the capital vote to five key priority sectors, namely: N361.2billion for Critical Infrastructure, including capital allocations of N88.5billion for Power, N15.4billion for Aviation, N26.5billion for Petroleum Resources, N129.3 billion for Works, N35.2billion for Transport and N48.7billion (out of a capital vote of N64.45billion) for critical infrastructure within the Federal Capital Territory;

N131.9billion for Human Capital Development, including N39.6billion for Health, N33.6billion for Education, N32.6billion for MDGs Conditional Grants, N19.7billion for MDGs Quick Wins Projects and N6.3billion for MDGs Capacity Building; N91.8billion for Land Reform and Food Security focusing on Agriculture and Water Resources; N67billion for Security; and key assumptions on which the President predicated the 2009 Budget proposal include: Oil production of 2.292mbpd, Benchmark oil price of US$45/barrel, Joint Venture cash calls of US$5billion, GDP growth rate of 8.9% and Inflation rate of 8.2%.

“On the basis of these assumptions, taking into account the revenue sharing formula, the total federally collected revenue is projected at N5.131trillion, which includes oil revenues of N2.941trillion and non-oil revenues of N1.973trillion (as well as other non-Federation Account items such as grants and special levies amounting to N217.5billion)”, Yar’Adua continued, “the total Revenue for the Federal Government Budget is forecast at N1.778trillion, including Independent Revenue of N306billion”.

“Key projects that will be funded by the 2009 Budget include: POWER: N3.5billion for the Mambilla Hydro-electric power generation project, N21.5billion for other Generation projects (including N6.5billion for the completion of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company’s NIPP projects), N32billion for Transmission projects, and N19.25billion for Distribution projects.

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