NO fewer than 10 federal ministries and agencies under their purview got over N1tn each as appropriation in the 2025 budget, this newspaper analysis has shown.
A breakdown of the proposed allocation, contained in the 2025 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly, showed that the ministries include Police Affairs, Interior, Defence, Finance, Power, Works, and Budget and Economic planning.
Others are the ministries of Niger Delta, Education, and Health.
The proposed budget showed that the finance ministry got the highest allocation of N17.52tn. Majority of this is for salary payment. The amount is an increase of 87.78 per cent or N8.19tn from the N9.33tn allocated in 2023.
This was followed by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, which got an increase of N2.33tn or 52.35 per cent to N6.78tn in the 2025 budget.
Third on the list is the Ministry of Defence with an appropriation of N2.92tn, indicating an increase of N1.34tn or 84.81 per cent. The Ministry of Interior got an allocation of N1.13tn from N461bn in 2024.
While the power ministry got a 510.46 per cent increase to N2.1tn from the N344bn in 2024, the works ministry also got a proposal of N1.14tn from N657.23bn.
Similarly, the Niger Delta ministry got an appropriation of N2.23tn, Education got N2.52tn and health got N1.91tn.
The Senate and the House of Representatives, at their separate plenaries last Thursday, passed for second reading the N49.7tn ‘Restoration’ 2025 budget presented on Wednesday by President Bola Tinubu.
The budget was passed after various deliberations on the bill’s general principles by senators and House of Reps members who applauded the President for his good intentions for the country.
In the Senate, the budget was passed and referred to the Committee on Appropriations after being put to a voice vote by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who presided over the session.
The budget has a revenue projection of N34.82tn to fund the aggregate expenditure of N47.9tn and a deficit of N13.0tn.
