Joel Ajayi

The Senate Committee on Marine Transport on Tuesday met the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) over their performances in the 2020 budget and the 2021 proposed budget.

The Managing Director of NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu, in his address, said that the Authority’s total Appropriation for the year 2020 was N6, 349,834,548, made up of recurrent estimates of N877,941,048 while capital estimates of N5,471,893,500.

” This implies that the recurrent budget constitutes 13.8 percent and capital estimates 86 2 percent of the total 2020 budget Appropriation for implementation.

“However, a recent review of the utilization revealed that about N591,121,713.73 representing 67.3 percent of the total recurrent budget was utilized while N844,891,399.63 which constitutes about 15.4 percent of the total capital budget was utilized as at October 2020.

“Though the financial performance stood at 76.3 percent of the total Capital budget,  actual project implementation performance for the period was very poor owing to delay in capital releases occasioned by the COVID19 pandemic that posed a very great global economic threat, the Authority’s drive to actualize its objectives which remain the primary focus with the fiscal year yet to elapse.”

Moghalu, however,  said that a total of N6,625,057,455 was proposed for 2021 for favorable considerations stating that it hopes to complete all on-going projects and enhance revenue generation.

“I, therefore, conclude that in line with the Economic Recovery Growth  Plan (ERGP) of President Muhammadu Buhari,  the Authority reiterates its determination now more than ever to upscale the development of Inland Water Transportation in Nigeria.

“I, therefore, seize this opportunity to appeal to Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee to use your good offices to ensure and facilitate a conducive financial and legal environment that will provide the boost needed for NIWA to achieve its full potentials,” he said.

Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua (Rtd), the Rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria said that N2, 163, 692, 734 was appropriated for 2020 while N1,561,001,781 was released.

He stated that the total sum of N2, 254,341,534 was proposed for 2021.

According to him, the total recurrent estimates for 2021 were N1,165,939,238 while total  Capital estimates were N1,088,402,296.

Effedua said that most of the projects at the academy were ongoing because of non- completion by the past administration, stating that 99 percent of what was released in 2020 has been utilized.

He noted that until all the ongoing projects were completed, no new projects would commence at the academy.

Speaking, Sen. Danjuma Goje, Chairman of the Committee said that the two organizations should give a breakdown of the percentage of the ongoing projects to be able to ascertain the level of completion of each project to avoid seeing the same projects next year.

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