Senate passes N278bn FCT budget

The senate has passed N278 billion budget of the federal capital territory (FCT) for the year 2020.

The budget was increased by N48.45 billion. President Muhammadu Buhari had sent N232 billion to the upper legislative chamber.

While presenting the budget report on Friday, Kyari Abubakar, chairman of senate committee on FCT, said the administration has the capacity to raise revenue for the budget.

“The federal capital territory (FCT) internal revenue services has the capacity to achieve this budget to provide security architecture in the FCT,” he said.

“We also want to ensure revenue leakages are blocked and they are able to provide infrastructure for FCT.”

Contributing to debate, Gabriel Suswam, senator representing Benue north-east, asked the FCT committee to ensure that challenges in the city’s security architecture are addressed.

“We want to encourage the oversight function of the committee on FCT to make sure the issue of infrastructure and security is attended to,” Suswam said.

Thereafter, Yahaya Abdullahi, senate leader, moved a motion for the senate to dissolve into the committee of supply where clauses in bill were voted on.

Speaking after the budget was passed, Senate President Ahmad Lawan urged the FCT committee to ensure that it is implemented.

“This is to show that we are interested very much in any issue that wil make life better for every nigerians. As the State Assembly for FCT, we have discharged our responsibilities, the next thing for FCT is to implement the budget,” Lawan said.

“I believe that we have done our job and what is left is for the FCT to take up its responsibility and for our committee on FCT to ensure this budget is implemented.”