Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government will spend an estimated N104 billion on purchasing generators, fuelling and servicing them in 2022, it is gathered.
The N104 billion which will be spent on generators due to the country’s unstable power supply exceeds the Internally Generated Revenue of about 24 states of the federation.
The details are contained in the 2022 budget proposal which has yet to be approved by the National Assembly.
It was gathered that the figure might be higher as about 15 agencies including the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Information Technology Agency (NITA), National Pension Commission (NPC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Examination Council(NECO) and others did not indicate their generator budgets.
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A review of the budget shows that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning headed by Zainab Ahmed, takes the lion’s share of 80 per cent for generators as the ministry set aside N82.03 billion.
The item under the heading, ‘Purchase of Fixed Assets- General’ reads, “Purchase of power generating set 82,030,000,000.”
As of press time, the Spokesman for the Finance Ministry, Yunusa Abdullahi, had yet to respond to an inquiry on why the budget for generators for the ministry is very high.
Meanwhile, a further analysis of the budget showed that among the agencies, the Federal Inland Revenue Service has the highest budget for generators.
The agency earmarked N250 million for maintenance, N1 billion for fuelling the generators and N550 million for purchasing new ones, given a total of N1.8 billion.
The Nigerian Army has the second highest budget for generators having earmarked N971.7 million for generator fuel alone. The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency has the third highest budget for generators at N946 million.
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The Department of Petroleum Resources set aside N118.7 million for maintenance, N666.8 million for generator fuel and N120 million for the purchase of generators in its offices in Sokoto, Kano, Makurdi, Yenagoa, Ilorin and Umuahia, bringing it to a total of N905.5m.
The agency with the 5th largest generator budget is the Nigerian Ports Authority which set aside N798.2 million for the maintenance and purchase of generators.
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission budgeted N470 million for the maintenance of a generator plant and N262.11 million for the procurement of a generator, given a total sum of N732.1 million.
The Federal Road Safety Corps set aside N529.3 million for maintenance, fuel and purchase of generators.
The Nigeria Police formations and commands across the country are expected to spend N211.5 million on maintenance and N309.8m on fuel for the generators, a total of N521.3 million