The Federal Government in the 2020 revised budget proposal has allocated N27billion to the National Assembly for renovation of the Assembly complex.
The National Assembly, had earlier sent in an initial cost of N37billion for renovations to be carried out by the Federal Capital Territory Administration.
The Federal Government hinged it’s decision to reduce the allocation to the drop in the price of crude oil and a fall in the projected government revenue.
Also in the proposed revised budget, the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, which is meant to cater for all primary health care centres nationwide was drastically reduced from N44.4billion to N25.5billion.
The Basic Health Care Provision Fund is made up of 1% of the Federal Government consolidated revenue from international partners.
In the same vein, the Universal Basic Education fund was significantly reduced from N111.7billion to N51.1billion.
The UBE, is a reform programme aimed at providing greater access to quality basic education nationwide.
The budget for the National Assembly was also reduced, however not significantly from N128billion to N115.2billion.
The allocation to the National Judicial Council was also cut from N110billion to N99billion.
The significant reductions in the allocations to critical sectors like education and health have been described as a setback to Nigeria’s quest for development.
It would be recalled that there was a public outcry last year, when N37billion was budgeted for the renovation of the National Assembly complex amidst reduced allocations to more important sectors.
