2022 Budget: Women Affairs Ministry to invest N220m in solar power

Worried by the high cost of utility bills expended by the Ministry of Women Affairs, the ministry has decided to adopt an alternative source of electrical power, a safe energy option, to reduce the cost of electricity bills in the ministry’s headquarters, Abuja.

To this end, the ministry has proposed to invest N220 million in solar energy, to power the office of the minister, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary and the two lifts that run the five-storey building of the ministry’s headquarters at the central business district, in Abuja

The new project tagged Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, in the 2022 budget reads in part: “ERGP 101761615 Introduction of Solar Panels and Inverter to Power the Offices of the Honourable Minister, Permanent Secretary and the two lifts in the ministry N220,000,000.”

Tribune Online checks revealed that the ministry would spend about N10 million in the coming year as electricity bills. This amount is a magical drop from the N50 million annual bills for electricity in the last few years.

This initiative by the ministry would help her reduce electricity bills in the ministry because its current bills on the headquarters was inclusive of the office of the minister and the two lifts which the budget proposed would be about N10 million.

Overhead cost, where electricity is charged in the Ministry of Women Affairs for the 2022 budget, stood at N425,000,009, from which it would expend about N10m for electricity.

Tribune Online findings revealed that the ministry had expended over N200 million on electricity in the last five years.

However, the ministry which hoped to pay less on electricity next year further decided to spend more on electrical power, as a future investment for clean and sustainable energy.

Tribune Online investigation showed that the cumulative cost of over N200 million expended on power was reflected on a constant charge for utility, which was captured in the past five budgets of the ministry and totalled over N239,999,960.

Working through the budget from 2017 to 2021 the electricity bills of the ministry steadied at the figure of N49,999,992.

The budgets with their codes and budget line read: “22020201 Electricity charges, N49,999,992 from a utility cost of N52,399,992 in 2017 Appropriation Act.

The utility bills for the fiscal years until this extant budget year, steadied at N57,399,992 while the budget for electricity charges maintained the cost of N49,999,992 in these years from 2017 – 2021, a cumulative cost of over N200 million.

Tribune Online noted that, for its 2022 budget, the Ministry of Women Affairs bill on electricity, significantly dropped, by almost 80 per cent, from N49,999,992 to N9,999,992 on the budget code, 22020201 in the 2022 Appropriation Bill.

This budgetary request to the national assembly for approval would be debated in the women affairs committees where the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, would appear with her management team.

In the Senate, the chairman of the Women Affairs committee is Senator, Betty Apiafi and her counterpart in the House of Representatives is Hon. Wunmi Onanuga.

The sudden drop in the electricity charges would be explained by the ministry experts, as they go before the legislators, to defend the budget, especially as the country has witnessed increased charges on electricity in the last few months.

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