The office of the chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie, gets N576 million running cost in the commission’s N876 billion 2023 budget passed by the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday. This is even as 12 board members of the commission are to get the sum of N451 million as their entitlement for the year.

The 2023 appropriation bill was passed after a thorough debate that tends to bring out the impact of the commission on the people of Niger Delta region in past years.

The breakdown for the office of the chairman showed that the personnel cost will gulp the sum of N156 million, overhead -N312 million and Internal capital – N108 million.

For the Managing Director’s office, N546.597 million was earmarked for personnel cost, N747.500 million for overhead cost, N163.504 million for Internal Capital.

Others are Executive Director Finance and Administration Office, personnel cost N133.337 million, Overhead cost N457.465 million and N163.504 million for Internal capital.

The Corporate Affairs Department of the Commission, also got N1.061 billion from the votes, out of which N431.076 million is for personnel cost, N845.566 million for overhead and N63.081 million for Internal Audit.

In the overall budget of the commission, personnel expenditure gulp N34.2 billion, overhead expenditure will gulp N17 billion, internal Capital expenditure will gulp N3.7 billion, Development projects will gulp N490 billion and Federal government intervention in the Niger Delta – N330 billion.

The revenue sources to finance the budget are Revenue brought forward – N5 billion, Federal government contribution – N119 billion, Federal government contribution (unpaid areas ) – N430 Billion, Oil companies contributions – N297 billion, Ecological funds – N20 billion and other Internally Realized income – N500 million.

Report for consideration and approval for the budget, was presented by Senator Bulus Amos in his capacity as Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs.

In his remarks after passage of the budget, President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan said the exercise was very expedient in order not to let the people of the region suffer from further delays.

Sixteen out of the 37-member committee signed the report, considered and approved by the Senate.

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