Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has reportedly proposed N160 billion in the 2019 budget to address public service wage adjustment for Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
This adjustment will include arrears of promotion and salary increase and payment of severance benefits according to the document submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.
From the 2019 budgetary proposal sent to the National Assembly last week, according to The Nation, N2.3 billion will be spent on surviving former Presidents/Heads of State and their second-in-command.
This figure is contained in the proposed 2019 budget under the Service Wide Vote heading which specifically entred N2.3 billion as “entitlements of former Presidents/Heads of State and Vice Presidents/Chief of General Staff” in the year.
Following the recent passing of former President Shehu Shagari, Nigeria now has seven former Presidents/Heads of State and two Vice Presidents, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Arc Namadi Sambo as the beneficiaries of the proposed payment.
If prorated equally among the nine surviving beneficiaries, it will mean that each former leader will pocket N21,296,296.297 a month.
Also under the Service Wide Vote in 2019, is the entry for benefits of retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries which will gulp N4,502,491,809.
The Service Wide Vote is a special entry in the annual budget that takes care of extra-ministerial spendings outside the immediate control of the supervising ministry.
Under this heading, N1,000,000,000 will spend as severance benefit to retired Heads of Government agencies and Parastatals. The Presidential Amnesty Programme, specifically, the reintegration of transformed ex-militants will receive N65,000,000,000 in the 2019 fiscal year while N15,800,000,000 has been set aside for contingency purposes.
For the military operation, Lafia Dole and other operations of the Armed forces, N75,000,000,000 has been captured for the exercise in 2019 and another N350,000,000,000 for FGN Special Intervention Programmes. N50,000,000 will be spent on pension verification and administration and N4,000,000,000 for Treasury Single Account (TSA) Operations in the new year.
To settle the electricity bills of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government, a provision of N5,000,000,000 has been made in the budget.
Other entries under the Service Wide Vote in the 2019 budget include: Payment of local Contrators debts, N15,000,000,000; N151,402,049,347 for Power Sector Reform Programme (NBET); N51,219,751,964 for the Implementation of National Health Act; N6,000,000 for DIA Civilain staff verification exercise (2018); another N9,556,566 for DIA Civilian staff administration charges (2018) and N10,000,000,000 for pension protection fund.
For Nigeria Airways Ex-workers, N22,682,832,166 has been earmarked to settle their outstanding benefits in the new year while N21,250,424,823 will be for GAVI/IMMUNISATION and N20,000,000,000 for University revitalization.
To meet its counterpart obligation towards the Federal Initiative for North-East, the federal government has proposed N45,000,000,000 and another N4,000,000,000 for counterpart funding for global fund/health/refund to Gavi and N3,500,000,000 to fund Galaxy infrastructure. The capital of Development Finance Institutions (DFI) will receive N15,000,000,000.
In 2019, the Debt Management Office (DMO) is expected to spend N2,264,711,421,667. From the amount, N120,000,000,000 will set aside for the sinking fund. This is “a fund formed by periodically setting aside money for the gradual repayment of a debt or replacement of a wasting asset.” This fund is considered very important by the federal government in paying off some of its matured bonds.
In the year, DMO hopes to spend N2,144,014,113,091 on public debt charges comprising of N1,710,218,672,442 for interest on internal public debts and N433,795,440,649 on external public debts.
