Communication Ministry to spend ₦158.3m on travelling, fumigation

The Ministry of Communications Technology and one of its affiliate parastatals the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited, NigComSat has proposed to spend ₦158.3 million for travelling, fumigation, refreshment and miscellaneous purposes in the 2018 fiscal year.

This was contained in the 2018 appropriation bill submitted by the federal government to the National Assembly.

The Ministry proposed that the amount in the appropriation bill will enable it carry out the listed items in the fiscal year.

Of the amount, the Ministry and NigComsat are going to spend ₦48,334,551 on travel; ₦26,758,697 on fumigation; ₦42,672,391 on miscellaneous expenses; ₦8,911,615 on refreshment/meals and the sum of ₦31,600,000 on electricity charges.

The amount is ₦14,290,188 lesser than the ₦172,566,975 approved for the ministry and two agencies only for travelling in the 2017 estimation.

The budget estimate which allocated ₦11,716,581,495 for recurrent expenditure and ₦7,544,159,142 for capital projects, totaling ₦19.261 billion for the ministry and the two parastatals in the year. This is ₦510,644,861 higher than the ₦18,750,951,876 allocated to the same ministry in 2017.

For the ministry, the total allocation of ₦6,943,840,661 increased by ₦19,999,520 from ₦6,923,841,141 approved for 2017.

Of the amount, the sum of ₦5,544,159,142 is allocated for capital projects, which shows no difference from the same amount allocated for capital projects in 2017, while ₦979,681,518 is earmarked for recurrent expenditure, though ₦20,008,520 higher than ₦959,671,998 of 2017.

However, the Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited, NigComsat, also got an increased allocation of ₦4,169,826,133 in 2018 compared to ₦3,911,916,890 approved in 2017.

For the capital projects, there was no change from the sum of N1,579,999,999 allocated in 2018 and for the recurrent expenditure, the sum of ₦2,589,826,134 is allocated , representing ₦257,909,243 increase from ₦2,331,916,891 approved in 2017.

For Nipost, though, there is no capital project cited in the budget estimate, there is an increase of ₦231,879,998 for the total of ₦8,147,073,843 from ₦7,915,193,845 approved by federal government in 2017, as the entire amount is allocated to recurrent expenditure.

The ministry got a total of ₦19,260,749,637 allocation for 2018, about ₦510 million more than the ₦18,750,951,876 estimate for 2017.

However, the ministry allocated the sum of ₦968,786,908 for research and development for the fiscal year.

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