•Says no funds received from N57bn multilateral loan for capital projects
From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Mohammed Ali Pate, has disclosed that only 15.06 per cent of the total capital allocation to the Ministry for capital projects was released in 2024.
He made this disclosure on Friday, while defending the ministry’s 2025 proposed budget before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Health at the National Assembly.
Specifically, Prof. Pate said of the N233.656 billion allocated to the ministry for capital projects in 2024, only N26. 552 billion has been released to the Ministry and utilised.
He explained that the poor release was due to the bottom-top cash plan policy of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, adding that he was yet to receive any money from the N57.393 billion captured under the multilateral/bilateral loan for capital projects.
Giving a breakdown of the total budget to the ministry in 2024, the professor said the total was N242, 141,830,564.51, out of which N7, 476,463,610 was for personnel, N998, 739,547 for overhead and N233, 656,627,407.51 for capital.
On the 2025 allocation, he said there was a slight increase in personnel allocation at N10, 361, 373,890.69, overhead at N1, 590, 382,403 and capital at N248, 316, 907,133.
Giving a general overview of the budget, he stated: “The 2025 proposed budget of the ministry was prepared using the budget preparation system on the GIFTS platform, which is compatible with the National Development Plan 2021-2025 approach, which demands justification and allocation of resources to projects and programmes in a given year based on needs and aligning with the policy of government, especially as encapsulated in the core objectives and execution priorities.