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FG to fuel State House generators with N2 billion next year

By Joseph Chibueze, Abuja
25 December 2024   |   2:06 am
The Federal Government has made provision of N1.99 billion to fuel State House generators next year, details of the 2025 budget proposal have revealed.The amount is the highest allocation for the spending item.


The Federal Government has made provision of N1.99 billion to fuel State House generators next year, details of the 2025 budget proposal have revealed.The amount is the highest allocation for the spending item.

This year, N37.96 million was allocated to it while it was N30.68 million last year. Next year’s allocation is 5,100 per cent higher than the N37.96 million budgeted for the same item last year.

The high budget to fuel generators at the State House may be indicative of a government’s lack of confidence in the public power infrastructure, which has remained suboptimal.

Power, as important as it is, has been a major challenge for Nigeria over the years even though the country has made significant investments in the sector between 2021 and 2024.

The budget for the power sector grew by 129.42 per cent from N133.479 billion in 2020 to N306.23 billion in 2022, with a focus on capital expenditures for infrastructural development.

In 2023, the government budgeted N258.494 billion for the sector, with N251.609 billion allocated for capital expenditure. It is estimated that between 2021 and 2024, Nigeria spent around N1.2 trillion on the power sector.

However, this has not resulted in significant improvement in supply to the citizens as homes and businesses are subjected to frequent blackouts and often resort to self-help.

Many businesses are shutting down while others are finding their way out of the country because they can no longer bear the heavy cost of self-generated power.

Recently, the Director General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Olusola Obadimu, raised the alarm that businesses in the country suffer a yearly $29 billion revenue loss due to inadequate power supply.

The sector is said to be fraught with challenges such as inadequate power supply, unreliable energy infrastructure and high electricity tariffs.The challenges do not only hamper the growth of industries but also undermine the ability of the country to attract investments and create jobs. Next year, the government hopes to fund the Ministry of Power with a total of N2.09 trillion with N2.08 earmarked for capital projects.

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