The
Federal Government has proposed N273.1bn for the funding of projects expected
to be executed under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme in
2014.It has also recommended N1.2bn as running cost for the members of the
board of the intervention body. The figure, which was contained in the Medium
-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper presented to the Senate
by President Goodluck Jonathan last week was about N818m higher than what the
body got in the 2013 fiscal year.The government voted N273.522m for the
programme in 2013, while the projected funding for 2015 and 2016 is fixed at
N180bn for each year.
The
Federal Government pledged to sustain the intervention scheme aimed at managing
and re- investing its share of the savings from the partial removal of
subsidies on petroleum products. It also promised that earmarked funds would
continue to be expended on programmes that would benefit the entire nation. Chairman
of the SURE-P board, Dr. Christopher Kolade, had told the senate ad-hoc
committee on the programme last week that the Federal Government was remitting
N15bn to fund the scheme every month since it was inaugurated in 2012.
Kolade,
however, expressed the fears that his board would not be able to meet its
obligations to the 111, 000 youths on its payroll as from the end of September
due to paucity of funds. He had argued that the senate reduced its N27bn budget
meant for the payment of N10,000 monthly to each of the youths to N9bn but the
senators faulted his argument and informed him that the original budget of the
programme had been passed alongside the supplementary budget about two months
earlier.
Source:
http://www.punchng.com
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