The Ministry of Transportation has proposed a capital budget of N205 billion in 2021 to facilitate the completion of all its ongoing projects and fund related agencies.
This disclosure was made by the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi in a statement during his presentation before the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Land and Marine Transport in Abuja on Friday.
According to a report by News Agency of Nigeria, the Minister disclosed that out of the N205 billion, land transport had about N204 million, marine transport had N845 million, with an overhead cost of about N358 million for the year 2021.
Speaking of the agencies funded by the Ministry, he said that Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) Zaria and Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) are fully funded from the national budget. Same with National Inland Waterway Authority (NIWA), Maritime Academy and Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding (CRFFN) derived their funding from both the national budget and the Internally Generated Revenues (IGR).
He said the major role of the Ministry in the marine transport sector was to oversee the monitoring of the implementation of government policies for the sub-sector, which were largely carried out by the agencies.
Amaechi said that the budget proposal had presented amounts required for completion of some of the projects by 2021, while others might extend to 2022. Some of these projects that are close to completion include National Freight Offices at Illela, Jibiya and Idiroko in addition to other land transport projects in 2021.
While presenting the budget, Rotimi Amaechi said: “The ministry is proposing a total capital budget of N205 billion with land transport estimates of N204 billion, marine transport estimates N845 million and overhead of N359 million in the 2021 budget, which is before you for consideration.
“The total capital appropriation of the ministry for 2020 is N70 billion, land has N69.6 billion, marine N698 million.
The aims and objectives of these proposals are to make significant progress on all ongoing projects, and to complete and deliver modern railway services that will provide an efficient and cost-effective alternative transport system for economic growth and job creation opportunities for the citizenry.”
