The Senate committee on power on Tuesday questioned the 42 billion naira provision made for a New Zungeru Power Plant Project in the 2022 ministry of power budget proposal.
The lawmakers say the same project was made provision for in last year’s budget with allocation of 25 billion naira, which generated controversy between members of the house of representatives and senators disagreeing that the proposed sum is outrageous
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe asked the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliu, why an ongoing project should be tagged new, questioning if the term “new” refers to a new loan for the project or new Zungeru project which has been increased to 43billion Naira in the ministry’s 2022 budget.
Responding, the minister of power Abubakar Aliyu says the multilateral loans are handled by the ministry of finance, he however affirmed that the project as captured in the proposed budget is not new and the term new as written in the presented budget was a typographical error.
The chairman of the committee senator Gabriel Suswan says the loans collected for such projects are being paid back with no projects on ground, to show what the loans are tied to.
Also read: C’River 2022 budget: Gov. Ayade presents N276 billion appropriation bill to Assembly
He mandated the minister to go back and get all necessary details on the said amount and send updated copies to the committee.
The Minister presented a budget of N301 billions for the ministry of power with N294 billion for capital.
Engr Aliyu says the federal government is set to commission the $1.3bn, 700MW Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Project, and the 40 MW Mambilla Power Station in Taraba State, by the end of December 2021
Editor: Hadiza.A.A
