FG Budgets ₦14bn For Internet Access, Other Utilities In Aso Rock

The proposed budget of ₦20.51tn for the 2023 fiscal year presented to the National Assembly last week by President Muhammadu Buhari shows a sum of ₦14.8bn is to be spent on Internet access.

The said portion of the budget will also cover expenses on stationery, and telephone charges, among others at the Aso Rock Villa, Naija News learnt.

For more clarification, the federal government gave a breakdown of the expenses, noting that ₦67.1m would be spent precisely on the provision of the Internet to the Villa, while stationery and computer consumables would gulp ₦79m.

It explained also that ₦35.9m was allocated for electricity charges, telephone charges and water rates each got ₦306.2m, ₦6m and ₦40.6m respectively.

Out of the total budget for the Villa, ₦1.6bn would be spent on personnel costs.

Meanwhile, the sum of ₦35m was budgeted for books and newspapers, with newspapers alone taking ₦26.4m and books gulping ₦8.5m.

Naija News understands that the overall approved budget is about ₦750bn higher than the ₦19.76tn earlier proposed in the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

Ahead of the Federal Government budget presentation, the House of Representatives, on Thursday, passed the 2023–2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which the President earlier presented to the National Assembly.

The passage followed the consideration of the report of the Committee on Finance.

The House approved an aggregate FGN expenditure of ₦19.76tn, made up of total recurrent (non-debt) of ₦8.53tn; personnel costs (MDAs) of ₦827.8bn; capital expenditure (exclusive of transfers), ₦3.96tn; special intervention (recurrent) of ₦350bn; and special intervention (capital) of ₦7bn.