Abuja:  Plans are afoot to commit the Federal Government to spend N522.283 billion  on the execution of designated National Programme of Action (NPoA) activities next year, under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) /African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in Nigeria.

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The amount is the minimum gross expenditure Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (FMDAs) will incur in executing the Federal Government-designated NPoA activities in 2009 and this, according to NEPAD in Nigeria, is approximately 22per cent of gross revenue accruing to government in 2007 and 19per cent of federal budgetary appropriation in 2008. The NPoA is a major deliverable from Nigeria's peer-review, as derived from recommendations made by Nigerians, as chronicled in the Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR) and Country Review Report (CRR).

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Special Adviser to the President on NEPAD, Dr Tunji Olagunju, who disclosed at a briefing of the Senate Committee on Co-operation, Integration in Africa and NEPAD,  in Abuja, said the cost implications would be captured in the 2009 budget, adding that the NPoA "seeks to address the shortcomings, weaknesses, challenges as well as strengths and best practices identified in the CSAR/CRR."
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He said  "it is designed to complement the extant annual budgetary systems of the three tiers of government," adding that the feature of APRM Nigeria's NPoA included a total expenditure (nationwide) of about US$20 billion annually.
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He said the annual cost was a supplementation of the normal annual budgets of the three tiers of government and designed to increase the country's overall capacity for implementing development project, which has a structure that is reflective of  prioritisation of governance issues. He said the issues were Socio-Economic Development US$8 billion, Democracy and Political Governance, US$5 billion, Economic Governance and Management US$4 billion,  and Corporate Governance, US$3 billion.

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Olagunju said, "the Federal Government will contribute 52.7per cent, States, 26.7per cent,  Local Governments, 20.6per cent; to be implemented from January 2009 to December 2012."
He also said at the meeting, presided over by the Committee Chair, Senator George Akume, that the costing of the State NPoA, which is also a supplementation of the normal annual budgets of state governments, was expected to be in the value of N10.088 billion for each state government.
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The cost structure, from the presentation to the Senate Committee, showed that Socio-Economic Development would get N5.6 billion, Democracy and Political Governance would get N2.5 billion, Corporate Governance N0.6 billion, Economic Governance and Management N0.4 billion, while Standards and Codes would get N75 million.
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He said the 774 local government areas would each be expected to commit about N251.166 million to implement the local government-designated activities in 2009, explaining that "the funding of the LG NPoA is to be sourced in line with the applicable constitutional provisions, within the annual budgetary systems; contributions from the private sector through the on-going Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme; and from development partners."
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He gave the cost structure for governance issues at the local government level to cover socio-economic development, N90.3million (35per cent); Democracy and Political Governance  N23.2million (9.3per cent); Corporate Governance, N32.5million (36per cent); Economic Governance and Management N90.1million (36per cent) and Standards and Codes (N0.84million (0.3per cent).
Olagunju said  relevant government offices at the three levels were expected to meet on the proposed expenditures with a view to incorporating them in their next year's budgets.
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He said at the federal level, "the Budget Office, NEPAD/APRM Nigeria, National Planning Commission and Ministry of Justice are expected to meet and reconcile possible discrepancies between the indicative cost estimates in the attached NPoA document and the 2009 budget estimates.