The Army received a sum of N1,008.84 trillion from the Federal Government’s budget between January 2019 and this year’s first quarter, Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister Hajiya Zainab Ahmed told the Senate on Tuesday.
Mrs. Ahmed revealed this when she appeared before the Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume-led Senate Committee on Army.
Citing a letter from the Chief of Defence Staff last week, Ndume said the military authorities complained that they had a shortfall of over N50 billion as far as fund releases from the Finance ministry was concerned.
Ahmed, however, gave the breakdown of how her ministry disbursed N1,008.84 trillion to the Army in the past two years as follows: N129.69 billion (Capital Expenditure); N39.76 billion (Overhead Cost); N681.79 (Personnel Cost); and N157.6 billion (Special Releases).
She said that the ministry has been “responsible and responsive” in providing funds for the Nigerian Army.
Mrs. Ahmed said: “The Ministry of Finance and National Planning, and indeed, the President, priorities are given to funding for the Armed of Forces of Nigeria.
“Apart from the fact that we try best efforts to fund what is provided for in the budget by almost 100 per cent, there has also been a lot of instances where the security service go to the President, get special approvals and we still provide funds.
“So, perhaps what we are providing is not enough, but the fact is we provide what is budgeted and we provide what is approved.”
