Following recent signing of the 2020 Appropriation Bill of N10.594 trillion into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, it has been discovered that there are some curious and strange budgetary items and allocations under the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Water Resources, and Mines and Steel Development.

Some of the line items under the budget of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with code ERGP 22582147 entitled “Supply of tricycles and deep freezers” was allocated N130 million; ERGP 22582146 Supply and empowerment material, sewing machine, hairdressing, grinding machine and vulcanizing machine was allocated N230 million; ERGP 30138239 Dissemination of research results-N19 million; ERGP 30138358 Training farmers on agribusiness-N19 million.

Other items include ERGP 30138099 Purchase of animal feed ingredients-N228 million; ERGP 301380100 Purchase of animal drugs and vaccines-N10 million; ERGP 23141747 Purchase of computer, printers and accessories-N7.8 million; ERGP 30124738 Voluntary guidelines on the responsible government tenure, which was new was allocated N11.6 million; ERGP 30124767 Enhancing role of ‘orphan crops’ and founa, i.e neglected or relegated local cultivators, land races, small ruminants, giant African Snails, insects, and others, as well as native knowledge and technology, got an allocation of N8.7 million; and construction of town halls in six communities in Delta State was allocated N285 million.

Similarly, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources also had in its line items and budgetary allocations ERGP 25109049 Preventive healthcare and HIV/AIDS advocacy with an allocation of N3.8 million; and item on Rural electrification gulping N33. 2 million.

Also, curious budget items and allocation found in the 2020 budget of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development include ERGP 1114597 Subscription for international mining journals and publications gulping N28.2 million; ERGP 22582959 Construction of bridge between Kwandare and B.A.D in Lafia Local Government Area had N20 million; and ERGP 22583732 Supply of motorcycles for youth empowerment in Ajaokuta Federal Constituency had an allocation of N30 million.

It would be recalled that the Senate passed the 2020 Appropriation Bill, raising total expenditure size by N263.946 billion or 2.6 per cent to N10.594 trillion from N10.33 trillion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari. (Vanguard)

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