Senate approves N549.6b budget 2024 for NCC, N17b as USP fund

The Senate has  approved the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) budget of N549.6 billion for 2024 fiscal year, and N17 billion for the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF).

The budget was approved on Thursdays during the plenary session when the Senate Committee on Communications presented the report of (NCC) 2024 budget.

Chairman of the Committee on Communications, Senator Bilbis Aliyu,  while giving the breakdown of the commissions total expenditure for the year 2024, said that N155 billion is  for recurrent expenditure and the capital expenditure of N18 billion.

Giving a summary of the framework of the NCC for 2024 Senator Aliyu said, “the sum of N66.7 billion is for special intervention projects, while the sum of N17 Billion will be transferred to  Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). The sum of N332.8 billion will be transferred to the federal government of Nigeria.

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“The recurrent expenditure of N155 billion consists of salaries and wages, spectrum  and regulatory expenses and professional fees. Capital expenditure of N18 billion  consists  of the commission’s internal project which is carefully selected to boost its revenue potentials  and replace obsolete fixed assets.

Lawmakers including Senator Adeola Olamilekan who threw their weight behind the approval, argued that more funds should be considered to augment the agency’s operations.

USPF is an agency under the NCC saddled with the responsibility of promoting widespread availability and usage of network services and applications services throughout Nigeria to institutions, unserved, under-served areas or for under-served groups within the communities in the country.

The  committee had earlier scrutinized the performance of NCC’s 2023 budget as presented by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Aminu Maida.

The 2023 budget performance report showed an actual revenue of N448.1 billion against a projected budget of N559.080 billion, with total recurrent expenditure at N67.072 billion and capital expenditure at N3.6 billion.