By Kingsley Okoye

The Senate has approved N1.8trillion for the 2025 Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Statutory Appropriation Bill.

This followed the presentation of the report of Committees on FCT on the bill by Chairman of the Committee Sen. Bomai Ibrahim (APC-Yobe) at plenary on Wednesday.

Ibrahim, in his report, said the Senate and the House Committee on FCT met with the minister and other relevant officials of the FCT administration to deliberate on the appropriation bill.

He said the breakdown of the budget includes personnel cost of N106 billion, overhead of N352 billion, total recurrent was proposed for N502 billion while capital expenditure proposed was N1.3trillion.

He said the total personal cost constitutes 8.29 per cent of the budget while the total recurrent of the budget constitute 27.69 per cent while the total capital was 72.31 per cent.

He said out of the 72.31 per cent, 85 per cent of the capital was dedicated to ongoing projects, adding that only 50 per cent of the capital was for new projects.

According to him, the best practice for budget framework was usually 70 per cent for capital and 30 per cent for recurrent.

He, however, said it was commendable that FCT budget has 72.32 per cent for capital and 27.69 overhead.

“This shows that the structure of the budget is in conformity with the best practice,” he said.

Contributing, Sen. Barau Jibrin (APC-Kano) said the leadership of FCTA has done well in the administration of the FCT.

He said Senate should support the laudable efforts of the FCT minister and his team to improve infrastructure development by approving the budget.

Senate, thereafter, passed the 2025 FCTA 2025 Statutory Appropriation Bill. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Editted by Abdulfatai Beki/Sadiya Hamza