Foreign Affairs minister seeks speedy consideration of first line charge bill
By Naomi Sharing
Minister of Foreign Affairs Amb. Yusuf Tuggar has urged the National Assembly to expedite the consideration of the bill seeking to place the ministry’s budget on the first line charge.
Tuggar made the call when he appeared before a joint committee of the National Assembly on Foreign Affairs to defend the ministry’s 2024 budget.
Tuggar stated that the overhead allocation of the ministry was grossly inadequate.
“This explains why the headquarters and most of the missions were unable to settle their statutory bills as and when due, largely due to inadequate budgetary provisions in recent years.
“As a result of this, most missions are perpetually in debts, hence, the constant requests by the ministry for Mr President’s approval for special intervention funds almost on annual basis to clear these debts.
“This problem will continue to exist until a time when reasonable and adequate budgetary funding is provided for the day-to-day operation of these missions,” he said.
Tuggar said to mitigate the upward review of the headquarters and missions initial ceiling on overhead allocation, there is need to ensure speedy consideration to the bill.
“The bill that would place the ministry’s budget on the first line charge was a product of the presidential approval of March 2020 on the monetisation of fringe benefits in the ministry.”
He noted that the bill could not be listed for consideration due to its arrival in the twilight of the 9th Assembly.
“We hope and sincerely pray for Mr. Chairman’s personal and esteemed members’ intervention and support in making its passage a historic gift to the ministry of foreign affairs.”
He further said that the 2024 proposed capital allocation to the headquarters and the foreign missions witnessed an increase compared to what was provided in 2023 Appropriation Act.
“However, the envelope ceiling given to the headquarters of N2.5 billion and that of missions, ranging between N72 million to N4 billion, by the budget office is insufficient to execute any meaningful capital projects.
“Moreover, the provision of N1 billion for the posting of ambassadors and officers’ return passages is grossly inadequate given the effect of exchange rate, and cost of airline tickets.”
Tuggar further called for an upward review of the 2024 proposed Overhead Cost Allocations of the headquarters and Nigeria’s 110 missions abroad by an additional 200 per cent across board.
“This is considering the continuous fall of the naira exchange rate against the dollar, as well as the upward inflationary trends in the global economy.
“Bearing in mind that the ministry’s budget is denominated in naira, while expenditure incurred is largely denominated in dollars with its attendant erosion of naira value at the end of the day.”
In his remarks, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Sen. Sani Bello, assured the ministry of the National Assembly’s support.
“We will do whatever we can to support the ministry. The activities of the ministry of foreign affairs represent the image of the country and we have to get it right,” he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Salif Atojoko
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