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Nigeria’s minister denies ₦206bn project fund injected in 2023 budget

Mrs. Sadiya Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, has rejected the 206 billion yen that the Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning included in the ministry’s 2023 budget.
Farouq testified for the defense of the 2023 budget before the Senate Committee on Special Duties. He claimed that the ministry requested funding for some projects of the North East Development Commission, NEDC, and the National Social Safety Net Project in the budget for 2022, but that the money was not released. He was surprised to learn that the money is now multiplied by 10 in the budget for 2023.
The revelation came as a result of Senator Elisha Abbo (APC Adamawa North), one of the committee members, asking about the N206 billion budgeted for projects.
The minister stated in her response that the ministry actually included funding for the projects in the budget for 2022, but that those funds were not made available.
-Advertisement “Yes, we mentioned the unreleased projects for 2022, one of which was for the NEDC.
“The money was not distributed, and now we have seen it recurring by almost a tenfold increase. We are also going to seek clarification from the Ministry of Finance regarding the reason for this increase, despite the fact that the money was not even distributed for the projects in the previous year.
Therefore, we will acquire the information then and send it to you.
“On the National Social Safety Net project’s scaling up.Because this is something that was negotiated between the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank, I really can’t really give you all the details about how this money will be used,” she emphasized.
However, Senator Abbo lamented that the nation cannot continue to borrow money and waste it, and he was shocked by the minister’s response.
He stated, “This is grave.Without investing in what our children will see, we cannot continue to borrow money and plunge this nation into debt.
Therefore, Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf (APC Taraba Central), chairman of the committee, moved to summon Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, to appear and provide an explanation for the N206 billion.
“I would like to make a motion requesting that the Minister of Finance appear before this committee to provide us with specifics regarding their plans for the N206 billion that is included in this ministry’s budget for 2023.
He argued, “This is very important now that the minister has said that she is not in charge of negotiation; of course she is not in charge of negotiation; the minister of finance is.”

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