NIGERIAN Senate has passed the N329.9 billion 2021 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Statutory budget.

  The approval came at Tuesday’s plenary after it considered the report of its Committee on FCT regarding the FCT Appropriation Bill, 2021 .

   Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said the budget was made up of N74 billion personnel cost, N58 billion overhead and N196 billion capital expenditure.

   He disclosed that the overall performance of the FCT 2020 Statutory Budget was 88 per cent as at Dec. 31, 2020.

   Kyari said that most of the projects executed by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the Federal Capital Development Administration (FCDA) were still ongoing “due to overbearing ineptitude of getting the Due Process Certificates on time.”

   He observed that new and ongoing projects were not sufficiently funded due to delay in the release of funds occasioned by bureaucratic bottlenecks.

   According to the lawmaker, the projected revenue accrued to FCTA was stretched by N30 billion due to additional revenue derived from Additional Statutory Allocation from the Excess Crude Account for receipts between January and May, 2021.

   He added that the Committee on FCT, consequently increased the fiscal framework to accommodate revenue receipts from additional statutory allocation and stamp duty fees, bringing the total expenditure to N329.9 billion.