Finance Minister Counters Ndume, Says Army Received N1trn In 2 Years

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that the ministry has provided not less than N1 trillion to the Nigerian Army between 2019 and March 2021 to fight insecurity in the country.

Ahmed made the disclosure during an interactive meeting with Senate Committee on Nigerian Army on Tuesday at the National Assembly in Abuja.

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The minister was asked questions on ‘Budget releases to the Nigerian Army from 2019 to Date’.

The Nigerian Army had last week accused the ministry of having a backlog of federal allocation of N50 billion.

Ali Ndume, the chairman Senate Committee on Army, cited a letter by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabo, while making the claim.

He said, “It is so bad that the Nigerian Army are rationing ammunition … I can be quoted; I have gone round the formations, and I have not seen a Nigerian soldier holding a brand new AK47.”

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But Ahmed in response said N1.08 trillion was allocated to the Army in the past two years.

She said the funds were disbursed as follows N129.69 billion (Capital Expenditure); N39.76 billion (Overhead Cost); N681.79 (Personnel Cost); and N157.6 billion (Special Releases).

The minister said, “In 2019, what was budgeted for the Nigerian Army was N19.6 billion, adding that N12.84 billion was released, representing 64.37 per cent.

“Perhaps what we are providing is not enough, but the fact is we provide what is budgeted and we provide what is approved.

“In 2020, the total budget for the Nigerian Army was N34.37bn and this amount was released 100 per cent. In 2021, that is this current year, the total budget of the Nigerian Army is N29bn and so far, we are in May and this is as at April we have released N17.98 billion of that which is 61.92 per cent.

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“There was an outside-of-budget spending because the need was higher than what was provided for in the budget.”

Ahmed said there was a total provision of N64.5 billion for procurement of military equipment that was provided for after President Muhammadu Buhari’s special approval.

she said, “In terms of overhead cost, in 2019, what was budgeted as was N15.64 billion out of which we released N14.299 billion representing 91.01 per cent.

“In 2020, what was budgeted for overhead was N20.634 billion and N20.471 billion was released, representing 99.21 per cent.”

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