Senate Passes N299.526b NDDC Budget

The Senate has yesterday approved N299.526billion as the 2015 budget for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). It was presented for consideration by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator James Manager, whose committee worked on the budget. Components of the budget included Personnel expenditure, N16.133billion, Overhead expenditure N10.423billion; Capital expenditure (internal) N1.879billion; Project (development) expenditure N271.09billion. Revenue sources according to the budget estimate included revenue brought forward, N10billion; Federal Government contribution N70 billion, Federal government contribution (unpaid arrears) N20 billion; oil companies contribution and others N160 billion; Ecological Funds, N40 billion and Internally Realized Income N100 million, all amounting to N300.1billion. James Manager said the Committee considered the proposal and noted that the non-project expenditure-personnel, overhead and internal capital totaling N28.465million represented 9.5 per cent of the total proposed budget for the year as against 8.43 per cent in 2014.