The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on Tuesday presented a proposed budget of N1.75 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year to the Senate, even as the upper chamber announced plans to physically verify projects executed by the commission between 2021 and 2024.
The budget proposal was presented to the Senate Committee on NDDC during a session at the National Assembly, chaired by Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong.
Speaking at the meeting, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Mr Samuel Ogbuku, explained that the proposed 2025 budget represents a 9 per cent reduction from the N1.985 trillion proposed and appropriated for the 2024 fiscal year.
Ogbuku disclosed that the N1.75 trillion estimate is expected to be funded from multiple sources, including N776.5 billion as statutory contributions from the Federal Government, N752.8 billion from oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, N109.4 billion as revenue brought forward from 2024, N53.67 billion recovered from federal government agencies, and N8.35 billion generated internally by the commission.
A breakdown of the expenditure shows that N1.631 trillion is earmarked for the execution of projects across the Niger Delta region, while N223 billion is allocated for internal project execution. The commission also proposed N47.56 billion for personnel costs and N49.93 billion for overhead expenditure.
On the performance of the outgoing 2024 budget, Ogbuku informed the committee that the commission recorded actual revenue of N1.985 trillion as of 31 October 2025, surpassing its revenue target of N1.911 trillion.
He attributed the improved revenue performance largely to the extension of the 2024 budget implementation period to 31 December 2025.
Following the presentation of the 2024 budget performance report and the 2025 proposal, the committee went into a closed-door session with the NDDC management team.
Addressing journalists after the session, Senator Ekpenyong said the committee resolved to conduct an extensive oversight tour of ongoing and completed NDDC projects across the nine Niger Delta states in January 2026.
According to him, the closed-door meeting allowed members to critically review the status of projects executed by the commission, leading to the decision to undertake physical verification on the ground.
“The committee took a critical look at both ongoing and completed projects by the NDDC and resolved to carry out an extensive oversight visit across the affected nine states in January next year,” Ekpenyong said.
He added that while the commission executed a significant number of projects in the outgoing fiscal year, expectations remain high for improved performance in the coming year.
In a related development, the committee observed a minute of silence in honour of former Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, who chaired the Senate Committee on NDDC during the 9th Senate and passed away penultimate week.
The tribute followed a motion moved by Senator Ned Nwoko and seconded by the committee’s Vice Chairman, Patrick Ndubueze.
