2019 Budget: Fashola’s Power Ministry, Others To Spend N313m On Generator, Fuel

Over N313 million has been budgeted for purchase, maintenance and fuelling of generators in three of Nigeria’s government offices in 2019, according to details of the 2019 budget proposal presented to the Nigerian Senate by the president, Muhammadu Buhari.

The three government offices include the State House, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (FMPWH).

The budget documents showed that the Power Ministry which is charged with the responsibility of regulating the power industry for Nigerian people––battles with its mandate, it has also made provision for an alternative source of power to ease its operation for the year.

Details showed that apart from the multi-million naira budgetary provisions made for generator purchase and maintenance by agencies under its watch, the ministry proposed to spend over N92 million this year on the purchase, maintenance and fuelling of generators/plants.

The breakdown of the figures shows that a total of N26.6 million was budgeted for maintenance of plants/generators, with generator fuel cost estimated at N16.3 million. The ministry, however, proposed to spend N50 million on the purchase of generators.

The figure has been reduced when compared to the 2017 appropriation details wherein the FMPWH headquarters proposed to spend N217.1 million on the purchase, maintenance and fuelling of generators.

Nigeria currently generates and distributes an average of 4,000 megawatts of electricity, amidst lingering conflicts among players and regulators in the industry.

A further breakdown of the 2019 budget details showed that at the State House, N5.2 million was budgeted for maintenance of generators while N45.6 million was proposed for generator fuel cost.

Of the figures presented by the three government offices reviewed by this newspaper, the EFCC had the highest proposal on generator and fuel cost as N53.7 million was budgeted for maintenance while N111 million was proposed as cost of fuel for generators.

Similarly, for its Markurdi and Sokoto zonal offices, N7.8 million was budgeted for the purchase of power generating sets.