N178b debt weighing us down, says Water Resources minister

 Tony Akowe, Abuja

WATER Resources Minister Suleiman Adamu has said a debt burden of over N178 billion is weighing down the ministry and hampering the successful execution of its mandate.

Of the amount, the minister said only N1.074 billion was provided in the 2020 budget for payment of debt, with N1.072 billion already released by the government.

Defending the ministry’s 2021 budget estimates before the House Committee on Water Resources in Abuja, Adamu said the ministry was targeting a revenue of N5 billion in 2020 largely from its programmes under Public Private Partnership (PPP) and other sources.

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“I want to once again bring to your recollection that during my appearance for the 2017 budget defence and subsequent appearances in different fora, I reiterated the fact that I inherited 116 projects with a total liability of N89 billion.

“When I assumed duty as minister, I directed departments and parastatals under the ministry to be making provisions from their meagre envelopes for the settlement of liabilities to enable us reduce the level of our indebtedness.

“This is partly the reason you will find those provisions in our proposals. We, therefore, tried as much as possible not to introduce new projects in our proposals in 2021, in our effort to keep the level of liabilities to the manageable level.

“As at today, the total outstanding liabilities for the main ministry is N178,144,768,680.09. In Financial Year 2020, as revised, there is a provision of N1,074,367,114 for the settlement of liabilities, out of which N1,072,800,611.95 has been released and N991,409,050.60 has so far been utilised,” he said.