The Federal Government has earmarked N675 million for operation allowance for troops fighting Boko Haram, banditry and other crimes across the country.
This is part of the supplementary budget passed by the National Assembly last Wednesday. The National Assembly had approved the sum of N982 billion as the supplementary budget for 2021, with N123 billion and N895 billion for recurrent and capital expenditures respectively.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had on June 6 approved the supplementary budget to the National Assembly, approving N770.60 billion for the acquisition of defense equipment.
The line items of the budget showed that N1.6 billion was set aside for “additional 2,700 troops” under the ministry of defence.
The budget also revealed that the Nigeria Air Force got a total sum of N239 billion, with the breakdown of N266 million for small arms and ammunition, N1.5 billion for upgrade of barracks and N84 billion for the payment of “defence equipment.”
In the budget, N4.8 billion has been for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to monitor WhatsApp and Thuraya, a satellite telephone, while police “commands and formation” got N33.6 billion for a number of projects, which include fumigation of 19 training institutes at N200 million, purchase of uniform and kits at N936 million, and N910 million for allowances and salaries of trainees.
Under health, N20.6 billion was voted for the “delivery” of vaccines to every ward/primary health centre, N60.7 billion was earmarked for purchase of COVID vaccines.
While the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) got N1.6 billion for a “treatment programme”, N6.7 billion was earmarked for the procurement and installation of oxygen plants nationwide.
