BudgIT queries FG’s N81.7 billion allocation for streetlights in 2023 budget

BudgIT has questioned the Federal Government for allocating the sum of N81.7 billion for the construction of solar streetlights in the 2023 budget.

The budget monitoring organisation in a statement released on Friday said the money budgeted for streetlights is higher than the total allocation to schools and primary health centers, which gulp N77.9 billion and N3.1 billion, respectively, in the budget.

According to BudgIT, in 2022, a UNESCO report tagged Nigeria’s out-of-school children figures at 20 million, a staggering 52% increase from the 10.5 million reported by UNICEF in 2020.

It added that Nigeria’s child mortality rate is the second-highest in the world, and maternal mortality is at 576 per 100,000 live births, the fourth-highest in the world. Describing the allocation to streetlights as a “gross misplacement of priority”, BudgIT noted that Nigeria is presently littered with non-functional and vandalized streetlights that have stopped working less than two years after their construction.

Further analysis

Analyzing the budget further with regard to projects allocation to agencies of the government, BudgIT said:

“Our analysis also discovered that over 687 projects worth N112 billion were allocated to agencies outside their mandate. The Nigerian Army was allocated N4.5 billion for the Construction of Dengi-Kwalmiya-Gagdi-Wawus Bauchi Road in Plateau State, Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research was assigned N1.2 billion across four projects to supply medical equipment to health centers in Ogun State, and N580 million was allocated to National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, to construct roads and streetlights in Abia State, amongst many others.”

According to the statement, the Acting Head of BudgIT’s Tracka, the platform, which allows citizens to collaborate, track and give feedback on public projects in their communities, Ayomide Ladipo, expressed her displeasure over this development.

“The implications of assigning projects to agencies out of their mandate is that it undermines monitoring, evaluation, and the sustainability of these projects. These agencies lack the expertise and personnel to ensure quality service delivery of these projects, leading to projects under-delivery and a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money and scarce resources.
An example is the News Agency of Nigeria which was allocated N200 million to construct solar streetlights in Rivers State. What business does NAN have with streetlights?” Ayomide said.

Empowerment projects reduced

BudgIT said Tracka also discovered a 21% reduction in the percentage of empowerment projects this year compared to last year, where N58 billion of N100 billion was allocated to empowerment projects in 2022, while N37 billion of N100 billion was allocated to empowerment projects in 2023.

“This is progress as it is the first time in three years that the percentage of empowerment projects in the ZIP will be less than 50%. We strongly advise against empowerment projects being a large chunk as they are mostly vague and challenging to track. These empowerment projects have also been used as a funnel to transfer political benefits to party loyalists,” it said.

BudgIT in the statement urged Nigerians to question the anomalies in the 2023 budget expenditures. It also called on elected representatives to duly perform oversight functions, provide timely updates to the public, carry citizens along, and ensure the quality implementation of the projects they nominated so that citizens can derive maximum benefits from public funds.