ABUJA – Mr Bassey Dan-Abia, the Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), said in Abuja on Thursday that funding of the commission had not been completely in line with provisions of the commission’s Act 2000.Dan-Abia said this at the defence of the commission’s 2014 budget estimate before the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC.
He said that the funding gap had posed a serious challenge to implementing the
commission’s mandate.Dan-Abia said that because of limited funds, the commission made sure that only performing projects were allocated funds in the 2014 budget.
According to him, the budget estimate was prepared in conjunction with key stakeholders in line with the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government.
“This budget proposal is a product of participatory budget process carried out with key stakeholders within and outside the region,” he said.
Dan-Abia also said that the 2014 budget estimate of the commission was based on a revenue projection of N322 billion, representing 2.15 per cent increase over the 2013 revenue.
The total recurrent expenditure for 2014 was is N25 billion, representing eight per cent of the total revenue of N322 as against N26 billion representing 8.5 per cent in 2013.
The managing director described the 2013 budget as a stepping stone to the transformation of Niger Delta region in the quest for infrastructure and economic development.
“In preparing this budget, we made every effort to consult our stakeholders and involve them in our budgeting process.’’
He said that there was a need to continuously build the capacity of the people in line with the recommendations of the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan.
“We have to work hard on this because we acknowledge that government funding alone will not be able to deliver the required infrastructure that is needed in the region,’’ he said. (NAN)
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