•Summons Edun, Bagudu over solid minerals’ poor budgetary provisions
•Minister: FG committed to tackling unemployment
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The National Assembly yesterday tasked the heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government to present budgets that are realistic, implementable, focused and with measurable outcomes for legislative scrutiny.
This was as the National Assembly yesterday summoned the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, and the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, to explain the federal government’s commitment to diversify the country’s economy from its heavy dependence on crude revenues.
The Chairman, Joint National Assembly Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, gave the charge to the MDAs yesterday, when Edun appeared before the panel to defend the 2025 budget of the ministry.
The session was also attended by the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein and Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Mr Victor Muruako.
Musa, said the MDAs’ budgets should have a clear purpose and translate to tangible benefits for the populace on implementation.
He said it was the responsibility of the legislature to ensure efficient and transparent allocation of government resources to drive the development and needs of the people.
He added that the Ministry of Finance plays a foundational role in shaping economic policies and fiscal strategies.
He added, “The impact of this action will be released across all sectors, and as such, this budget must reflect prudence, accountability, and alignment with the priority of the people.
“We understand the challenges you face in balancing the demands of your mandate with available resources.
“However, as custodians of the public costs, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that every one contributes meaningfully to our shared goals.
“This session is an opportunity for MDAs to address the challenges they face supported by clear data and justifiable expenditures, this process is not adversarial but collaborative as we all share the common goal of advancing the economic well-being of our country,” Musa said.
In his remarks, Edun said the nation’s economy was moving in the right direction.
He added, “We’re all moving in the right direction, all the different sub-sectors are doing positively, yes, we want those that are job-creating to do even better and utilise the funds well.
“And I think we have justified that not only do we want N13 billion in 2025 budget for the ministry, there’s an extra need for large-scale capital expenditure which requires another N25 billion.”
On the drive to bring down inflation, Edun said
it was a key function of monetary policy.
“Central Bank is indicating a 15 percent inflation rate by the end of 2025, it is achievable, we are working hard towards it,we look forward to achieving it.
“It is their signaling of where inflation is expected to lie that has given us this interest rate, however, we all have a role to play.
“Even if monetary policy helps to try to bring down inflation, however, on the fiscal side, it is important that we contribute to lower inflation, not just by really squeezing demand, but by increasing supply.
“Increasing supply of food is one of the major commitments that is already laid out. We are having a dry season harvest now, and we have mobilised 250,000 farmers to be able to produce 750,000 metric pounds of assorted grains from the dry season farming.”
Responding to a question on the adoption of an envelope system of budgetary proposal for MDAs, the minister said: “We have a more pragmatic system, to improve everything, for right now, the envelope systems in terms of the capital project, it is about revenue, and a key task and a key target is ramping up revenue, already, as you have seen, revenue from Custom Service, revenue from FIRS, generally.
“The number one place to get revenue and to get foreign exchange, we all know, is the NNPCL, the oil sector and we have good prospects because there are major improvements that are being made in the more competitive environment for international investors and international oil companies.
“Finally, Mr. Chairman, we are looking at the non-oil sector and have continued a robust application of technology that we believe will maximise revenue generation.”
However, the National Assembly yesterday summoned Edun and Bagudu to explain the federal government’s commitment to diversify the country’s economy from its heavy dependence on crude revenues.
The Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committees on Solid Minerals, while justifying the decision, raised concerns over the paltry funding of the Ministry of Solid Minerals in the 2025 budget.
The panel said Edun, Bagudu should appear before the federal lawmakers today in company with the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Tanimu Yakubu.
The committees, jointly chaired by Senator Ekong Samson and Hon Gaza Jonathan, after the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake, appeared before lawmakers yesterday.
He was there to express the frustrations he had faced fighting hard to increase the budgetary allocations to the ministry without success.
Alake told the lawmakers that all his efforts could only get the ministry an initial envelope of N5 billion.
He said, “In fact, to let you know, the envelope we first received was N5 billion. I don’t know if you are aware of that. It was N5 billion,” he informed the members.
Alake disclosed that when he stepped up mounting pressure on the ministers and the DG budget after President Bola Tinubu presented the estimates to the National Assembly, he was reassured that the allocation would be increased substantially only to be just N9 billion.
“The Permanent Secretary is here and the night before the president came here, when we were working on the rehearsal of the budget speech, the Director of Budget came in and the Minister of Budget and I took them up in the presence of the President.
“What did they do? They promised that it would be done. So, again the following day, after the President’s presentation, we found N9 billion,” he stated.
Speaking further on the frustrations he faced, Alake said, “There is no way that I can begin to tell you, except I have videos that I can show you of the several engagements that we had with the relevant budgetary authorities and individuals driving this process and at every turn we received very positive responses.
“We had received very positive responses from those who are saddled with the responsibility of putting our budgets together, what else could we have done?
“There was no way we would rig their hands, and I don’t have the authority to compute the figures myself.”
When asked why his close relationship with Tinubu didn’t translate to getting improved funding for his plans for the solid minerals sector, Alake replied that not everything he discussed with the President could be made public.
Alake defended the President, arguing that he was not to blame for the funding challenges the ministry and its plans had suffered.
According to him, Tinubu was passionate about diversifying the economy, the reason it’s a cornerstone of his reform agenda.
“I cannot be divulging the conversations I have had with the President on this issue in the open.
“I am a manager of information and I have done that for over 40 years and I know how delicate information is.
“So, I give information on the-need-to-know basis or in private. So in short, the President is not unaware of our strides in the solid minerals’ sector.
“Every minute I am with him, apart from other issues that we discuss, or the assignments that he gives to me, I draw tales of solid minerals and we discuss all ratifications.
“I want to also emphasise, or maybe remind, distinguished Senators and honourable members, that if the President were not in tune or in sync with our vision, the diversification of the economy away from oil would not be a critical part of his programme of Renewed Agenda. It wouldn’t be. He coined it, he carved it.
“So, I want us to understand the fact that it is not because the President has not been intimated of the need for upward review that we are having this situation, not at all and this is not to absolve the President of anything. I am just laying bare the facts.”
Members of the committee mostly expressed surprise that a government that was committed to diversifying the economy did not make adequate budgetary provisions for solid materials development, one of the most important sectors that it could use to rival earning from the oil and gas industry.
Making his observations, Sen. Sampson noted that in other climes, solid minerals development was the mainstay of their economies as exemplified by the huge annual funding provisions for the sector.
In the meantime, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Dingyadi, has said the ministry was putting up efforts at tackling unemployment in the country.
He made this known yesterday, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity chaired by Sen. Diket Plang (APC-Plateau).
Dingyadi, who noted that he was barely three months old in office, said, “we have each and every hour been fighting unemployment in the ministry because that is our key assignment.
“That is the key responsibility that the Minister of Labour and Employment is leading with. All the skill development programmes that this ministry is doing, we are doing it to fight unemployment.
“This is our major responsibility. And like I said, we are on top of the situation to ensure that we fight unemployment to finish.”
When asked about unemployment statistics, Dingyadi said he would not want to give figures that he wasn’t sure of adding that we don’t know that this question was going to be answered.
“By way of presenting figures, I don’t want to go into giving you figures that I’m not very sure of. But I want to assure you that we have these figures.
“I didn’t come with them. And we have to coordinate them because all our parastatals and agencies are working on this issue of fighting unemployment.
“So we’ll coordinate and provide our committee with these figures. I know members of this committee are very serious and very intelligent.
“When we bring these figures, you will know whether what we are telling you is correct or not. So please give us a little time. We will get these figures ready for you and we will make them public if you want us to do so,” he said.
“I’m sure the figures are there. It’s only that we didn’t come with them because we don’t know that this question is going to be answered.”
Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Diket Plang, appreciated President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to the welfare, well-being and happiness of all Nigerian workers, both in the public and the private sectors.
He also acknowledged the Ministry’s commitment to ensuring decent work and promoting employment opportunities.
