The 2019 general elections will cost N242.4bn – President Buhari tells National Assembly

President Buhari has said that the 2019 general elections will be costing about 242.4 billion Naira. The President said this today in a letter sent to the National Assembly, seeking that the funds be drawn from the 2018 and 2019 budgets.

In the letter he explained that implementing a budget of 9.12 trillion Naira for 2018 will be extremely challenging and does not consider it expedient, to increase it to accommodate the funds needed for the 2019 general elections.

He had earlier criticised the National Assembly for reducing allocations for some projects and including thousands of projects into the budget without consultation with the Executive.

According to him, the National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. He has, therefore, asked the National Assembly to transfer the funds appropriated for the new projects which are inserted in the 2018 budget to cover the sum of 228.8 billion Naira for the elections.

The President also noted that the balance will be provided in the 2019 budget.

See below a proposed budget for the 2019 election

The total amount for the 2019 general elections

2018 supplementary – N164, 104, 792, 065
2019 budget – N78, 314, 530, 535
Total – N242, 445, 322, 600

Office of the National Security Adviser
2018 supplementary – N3, 855, 500, 000
2019 budget – 426, 000, 000
Total – 4, 281, 500,000

INEC
2018 supplementary – N143, 512, 529, 445
2019 budget – N45, 695, 015,438
Total: N189, 207, 544, 893

NSCDC
2018 supplementary – N1, 845, 597, 000
2019 budget – N1, 727, 997, 500
Total – N3, 573, 534, 500

Nigeria Police
2018 supplementary – N11, 457, 417, 432
2019 budget – N19, 083, 900, 000
Total – N30, 541, 317, 432

NIS
2018 supplementary – N530, 110, 078
2019 budget – N2, 098,033, 142
Total – N2, 628, 143, 320

DSS
2018 supplementary – N2, 903, 638, 000
2019 budget – N9,309,644,455
Total – N12, 213, 282, 455