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FOLLOWING calls by the Organised Private Sector that savings from the debt relief granted by the Paris Club be transmitted to Millenniums Development Goals (MDGs) project, the federal government has allocated N100 billion for the execution of various projects under the programme next year.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) focuses on eight key areas of development which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal basic primary education, etc, all by the target date of 2015.
It forms a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions.
In the 2006 Budget and Appropriation Bill presented by President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Assembly, reently, he said his administration is committed to the MDGs goals, and therefore, all the gains from debt relief, that is, the federal government resources that would have gone for external debt service in 2006, amounting to N100 billion, will be channeled to poverty reducing expenditures in Health, Power, Education, Agriculture, Water Resources, Environment, Housing, and support for women and youth.
“All the expenditures are targeted at programmes and projects aimed at scaling up our effort to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” the President said.
The budget contains proposals for spending N100billion released from external debt service due to the Paris Club debt deal. This money has been allocated to MDG related activities in sectors with projects and programs that directly impact on poor people. These allocations are additional to the normal ministry budgets provisions, and will build and equip additional primary health care centers and provide extra care for pregnant mothers; they will help accelerate the immunization of children, scale up care for HIV/AIDS patients, build additional classrooms, train teachers and add other incentives to get female children to enroll in and complete primary school. The resources will help build additional small dams for water supply and irrigation in villages, they will be used as grants to aid States and Local Governments build rural roads and improve rural infrastructure including rural electrification.
The resources will help with empowering and training women, removing solid waste and improving sanitation in poor rural and urban areas.
The allocation is as follows; Health N21billion, Education N21billion, Water Resources N20billion, Power N15 billion, Works N10 billion, Agriculture N10 billion, Housing and Urban Development N0.5billion, Environment N1.5billion, Women Affairs N1billion, Youth N1billion.
To ensure that these resources are being properly directed to spending on MDGS related activities and that results are being obtained, the President said that a special tracking mechanism know as OPEN- Oversight of Public Expenditure has been developed under NEEDS, to follow the resources from the point of disbursement to the point of expenditure.
“It is our expectation that States will also channel their share of the debt service savings into pro-poor programmes and projects. We are working with the States and Local Governments on these issues and hope to be able to show Nigerians that the savings from debt relief have been put to good and concrete use,” he stated.
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