Aso Villa budgeted over ₦25bn for maintaining its electricity and plumbing since 2016. And now it has budgeted ₦4.85bn for the coming year, at a time of economic uncertainty; all the while preaching the gospel of solar and new electricity tariffs.
- An aggregation of Aso Villa’s expenditure on maintaining its electrical/mechanical installation since 2016, averages a quarter of a ₦100bn;
- Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to ravage other sectors of the economy;
- These spending are reminiscent of the unending accountability conversation observed with government parastatals.
Aso Villa’s Outrageous Maintenance Fees
Annual budget expenditure for maintaining the electrical/mechanical installations for the Presidency once again underscore Nigeria’s problematic Power sector. Or perhaps it speaks to the unending accountability conversation with government parastatals. And yes, the Presidency is an agency of the government, who for the past five years budgeted ₦25bn for maintaining the electricity and plumbing in its State House Hqtrs.
Way back in 2016, Aso Villa budgeted a whooping sum of ₦3.91 billion for maintaining its electrical/mechanical installations. The cost for said installations and the why maintenance ran into billions remains unknown. But one could reason maybe this was a one-off. Wrong. Dataphyte observed an increase in 2017 to the tune of ₦4.95 billion.
The same trend continued in the ensuing years, albeit with fluctuations. For the year 2018, ₦4.86 Billion was budgeted for the same maintenance line items. Interestingly, the year 2019 and 2020 seem to be lowest among the timeline of four years, with the total expenses of ₦3.82 Billion and ₦2.93 billion.
Rather than spend billions in maintenance…
What’s troubling is that in all these years, FG gave no explanation into the installations used or maintenance type. And now these over-inflated sums have returned in the 2021 budget. However, this time it features a ₦1.92 billion increment.
But with another ₦4.85 billion allocation to maintenance, how workable is the government’s strategy for power. If the State House Headquarters utilised ₦25.33 billion in five years, what is the opportunity cost on the rest of the country? Recall the purported new tariffs, a Dataphyte analysis showed that combining them with solar alternatives could be viable for power supply. The same rationale holds for Aso Villa. At an average cost of ₦4 billion, FG could erect a solar farm for the State House Hqtrs, with no yearly maintenance fee running into billions.
Invest the ₦25.33bn in any of these sectors…
Besides the simple alternatives to these recurring allocations, the opportunity cost on other sectors is worth mentioning. In truth, investing a quarter of a 100 billion in Telecoms, Health, Finance or Agric would have seen better yields, especially in a post-COVID world. And speaking of the pandemic, movement restrictions saw huge remittances from the telecommunications sector. Hence, investing in such a sector could be a way to go. This is especially true because although the sector surpassed oil in its GDP contribution, it is still a far-cry from optimal in terms of technologies deployed.
Still on the novel virus, its aftermath is still wreaking havoc in the health sector. This is because the government sidelined ongoing health projects in favour of combatting the pandemic. Chief amongst which included family planning in rural communities. To that end, more investments, rather than deductions in this sector are always welcome.
Elsewhere the recovering financial sector could definitely use ₦25 billion. Moreover, this crucial sector assists the country in both its local and foreign investments. Therefore, investmenting here would not only strengthen the value of our currency, but reduce the number of citizens living below the poverty line.
Last, we have the agricultural sector, purported mother of all sectors, who contributed the highest to the GDP in Q3. An investment in Agriculture would go a long way in uplifting the nation’s domestic product. More so, it could help local farmers, and turn the tides of import over-reliance.