Senate Approves N451m for aides of 12 NDDC board members

By Iyojo Ameh…. Abuja

The Senate has passed the 2023 budget of N876 billion for Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) out of which N451million was approved as provisions for aides of 12 Board members of the commission .

Aside the N451million provision for aides to 12 Board members of the commission , the approved budget also contain N576million earmarked for running of Office of the Chairman of the Commission , Laurreta Onochie.

The breakdown for the office of the Chairman showed that the personnel cost will gulp – N156 million, overhead -N312 million and Internal capital – N108 million.

For the Managing Director’s Office , N546.

Others are Executive Director Finance & Administration Office , personnel cost N133.337million , Overhead cost N457.465million and N163.504million for Internal capital .

The Corporate Affairs Department of the Commission , also got N1.061billion from the votes , out of which N431.076million , is for personnel cost , N845.566million for overhead and N63.081million for Internal Audit .

In the overall budget of the commission, personnel expenditure gulps N34.2 billion , overhead expenditure will gulp N17 billion , internal Capital expenditure will gulp N3.7 billion, Development projects will gulp N490 billion and Federal government intervention in the Niger Delta – N330 billion.

The revenue sources to finance the budget are Revenue brought forward – N5 billion, Federal government contribution – N119 billion, Federal government contribution (unpaid areas ) – N430 Billion , Oil companies contributions – N297 billion, Ecological funds – N20 billion and other Internally Realized income – N500 million.

Report for consideration and approval for the budget , was presented by Senator Bulus Amos in his capacity as Vice Chairman , Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs .

In his remarks after passage of the budget , President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan said the exercise was very expedient in order not to let the people of the region suffer from further delays.

Sixteen out of the Thirty member committee , signed the report , considered and approved by the Senate .