The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that the Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, obviously does not understand how the country’s budget works based on his statement on the Mambilla power project.
Ahmed stated this at a budget defence of her Ministry before the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, when she was questioned on the allegation by Mamman that the budget for the Mambilla power project had been removed from the 2021 Budget.
Mamman had told the House that the N100 billion for the Mambilla power project had been removed from the budget of the Ministry of Power.
Ahmed told the House Committee that at no time did the Ministry remove the said amount.
According to her, it was possible that Mamman does not understand the budgeting dynamics, which is operated by the “Envelope system”.
She said: “Once the MTEF is passed, it allows your envelope.
“Power didn’t have Mambilla in the budget.
“We interacted.
“We didn’t remove it.
“Maybe Power Minister didn’t understand.”