The Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, has asked the House of Representatives to approve a N500 billion loan to finance the N1.147 trillion 2024 budget of the territory.
Wike made the request when he appeared before the House Committee on FCT to defend his budget on Monday, March 18.
He said the N500 billion will be sourced from commercial banks and will be used to finance capital projects.
On the expenditure side, the ministry is proposing to spend N726.3 billion on capital expenditure and N421 billion on recurrent expenditure.
Wike also spoke on the hike in personnel cost of the ministry. He said the increment is to accommodate emoluments of political appointees and in anticipation of new minimum wage.
“The sum of N140 billion, representing 12.28 per cent is proposed for personnel costs for the year 2024, compared to an appropriation of the sum of N99.5billion in the year 2023. This shows an increase of the sum Of N41 billion (29 per cent ) as against the revised 2023 Appropriation.
The increase is to accommodate the emolument of the appointed Mandate Secretaries and other political appointees of the administration, payment of staff promotion arrears, peculiar allowance and staff wage award arrears,” he said.
