By Nduka Chiejina (Assistant Editor)
The Federal Government has budgeted N15 billion in 2021 to settle local contractors.
This is contained in the 2021 budget details under Service Wide Votes captured as payment of local contractors debt.
In August, contractors under the aegis of Local Contractors of Nigeria picketed the Federal Ministry of Finance demanding to be paid for contracts executed three to 12 years ago and running into billions of Naira in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
Nigeria Airways ex-workers have been scheduled to be paid N5,750,380,668 in 2021.
Also for next year, the government has made provision to inject N15 billion into “Development Finance Institution (DFI).”
The budget did not specify if the N15 billion is for all the DFIs or just one.
Plans have been on to recapitalise the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) with 2021 as the target year for additional funds to be injected into the bank.
The injection of additional capital into the DBN will boost its capacity to fund more Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Next year, the government will release a grant of ₦10 billion “to BoI to support low-interest lending to SMEs”.
Aside from DBN, other Development Finance Institutions in Nigeria include the Bank of Agriculture (BOA); Bank of Industry (BoI); Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN); Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and The Infrastructure Bank.
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Under Service Wide Vote in 2021, N25 billion has been earmarked for special intervention; ₦5 billion to settle MDAs electricity bills.
N17,899,000,000 will be refunded into the special account, and another ₦16,703,390,000 will be returned to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) while ₦20 billion will be spent on special intervention programmes and projects next year.
₦15,000,000,000 will spent on subscription to shares in international organizations and NI billion on the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).
Construction of the National Assembly library will take ₦4billion while ₦1billion will be used to execute the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in 2021.
₦65billion has been earmarked for the Presidential Amnesty Programme and the reintegration of transformed ex-militants. Another ₦5billion will be paid “for outsourced services”.
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