The Daily Trust has reported that nearly half of federal government’s N1. 6 trillion 2014 capital votes went to the South- South, President Goodluck Jonathan’s geo-political zone.

The region got projects worth N639.306 billion which is more than the total amount of money spent on projects in the rest of the five geo-political zones of the country.

•Jonathan: home region heavily favoured in capital projects

The figures are based on the analysis of contracts awarded during the year by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), at its weekly meetings chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Zone-by-zone data analysis of federal projects are South-South: N639.306 billion; South-West: N256 billion; FCT:N193 billion; South-East: N111.3 billion; North-Central:N101 billion; North-West: N62.151 billion and North-East: N23.767 billion.

The total amount shared among the zones as shown above is N1.387 trillion.

This excludes N262 billion of the total amount spent on other programmes but not pinned down to any particular zone.

These are N240m approved for 44 SURE-P jeeps; $300m (N55.5bn) diaspora bond; N80bn global depository notes; $82m (N15.2bn) loan for polio eradication in the country; N1.1bn for two locomotives for new standard gauge rail line across the country; $495m (N91.57bn) for irrigation management in the country and N9.287 billion for the purchase of cooking stoves and wonder bags for rural women across the country.

The South-South zone also got billions as derivation fund, which is 13% of oil revenues accruing to the Federation Account.

Similarly, billions of naira was provided for the region through budgetary allocations to the Niger Delta Ministry and the Niger Delta Development Commission.

The National Assembly on April 9 passed the 2014 budget totalling N4.695trn, an amount which is N52.2bn higher than the N4.642trn submitted by President Jonathan. Highlights of the budget are: statutory transfers, N408,687,801,891; debt service, N712,000,000,000; recurrent expenditure,N2,454,887,566,702; capital expenditure, N1,119,614,631,407; and aggregate expenditure, N4,695,190,000,000.

Click this link for the detailed report:http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/daily/top-stories/43301-n1-6-trillion-fg-contracts-for-2014-niger-delta-gets-lion-s-share