3 hours ago
18
From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
The Senate Committee on Capital Market has queried the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the allocation of expenditure profile in the 2025 budget, with N1, 464 billion earmarked for only electricity. It, however, applauded the revenue profile of the budget.
On Thursday, February 13 passed the N54.99 trillion 2025 budget and made some adjustments to the Appropriation Bill on Tuesday, February 18.
While appearing before the committee on the same Tuesday, the lawmakers demanded an explanation from SEC on why only electricity had four different requests in one year. Under its expenditures, SEC allocated N355,945,200 for electricity charge and N490,360,000 for generator fuel. Under capital, it budgeted N118,000,000 for procurement of generator and N500,000,000 for green energy (solar).
Other budget items flagged by the committee included N66.8 million for toiletries, beverages, utensils, etc, N1.3 billion for maintenance of furniture and equipment, N3.8billion for foreign training, N2.3billion for local travels and N1.125billion for foreign travels.
In addition, the lawmakers asked the Director General, Dr. Emonotimi Agama, to explain why N45 million was allocated to computer software and N377 million for computer hardware in the capital component of the budget, different from N1.041 billion for software maintenance, N1.3 billion for hardware maintenance and N27.8 million for computer consumables in the expenditure component. This, they noted, is despite the provision of funds by CBN for procurement of computer hardware in 2023.
The SEC DG explained that on the electricity provision, the commission allocated N500 million to solar energy to enable it provide alternative sources of power to its offices due to rising cost of electricity supplied by distributing companies like AEDC.
“The issue of power, electricity charge and all of that in the budget, like we said, without making provision, we cannot make expenditure. As we speak today, I spend an average of N17 million as electricity at the headquarters of the SEC from AEDC. I have some offices in Lagos, in Kano and Port-Harcourt that have an average of N1 million as electricity. I have NCMI with an average of N1.5 million as electricity bill. So, at the end of the month, I spend nothing less that N30 million or thereabout on electricity bill. Besides that, how I wish I get the electricity. I get the bill but often times do not get the electricity but we must run. So we need to buy diesel. We are aware of the fluctuating price of diesel.
“That is the reason why we have such projections. While we think about those challenges, in the spirit of sustainability, we have thought and that thinking bigger is the issue of green energy. The NSE in the last 8 years have suffered a lot in terms of facilities. Our generators were bought about 20 years ago. They have outlived their lives. There is no generator that is less than 15 years old at the NSE. We can’t wait until they have totally packed up before we release them. Hence, we are making projections.’’
On the computers, the DG said the components were not supplied in full.
“Some of the equipment that was bought by CBN, we were not able to complete the installation because they were not all supplied,’’ he said.
For maintenance of computer software, he said, ‘’when you pay for cloud, it is maintenance. It is not an equipment, you pay for license.’’ But the lawmakers disagreed, saying maintenance means there is something already on ground that is being taken care of.
They subsequently directed him to furnish the committee with details on the budget, saying: “We need documents for the computer software and hardware. We also need the documents for foreign travels. They also asked for clarification on the solar projects, saying there should be a reduction in power cost of alternative power is being used side by side. You cannot be allocating money to electricity bill and still have solar. One has to give for the other.’’
Asked if staff of SEC have a “purging problem’’ that will require them to spend N66. 8 million on “toiletries, beverages and utensils’’, he responded, “in terms of the toiletries, I am very happy to announce that my staff do not have purging problem but I assure you I am going to look at it.’’
The commission’s total projected revenue for 2025 (N50.491billion from operations and N1 billion from AfDB grant) is N51.491 billion; total recurrent expenditure N40.575 billion; capital expenditure N5.473 while surplus is N5.443 billion.
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