The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has decried the low 2023 budgetary allocation to the Minister of Information and Culture and its parastatal agencies.
The minister raised concerns on Wednesday in Abuja during the 2023 budget defense session organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Information.
The minister said that in the 2022 budget, the sum of one billion naira was allocated to the information component of the ministry.
Mohammed said that in the 2023 proposals, only the sum of N345 million was allocated for capital expenditures for information.
The minister said that given the circumstances in the country, the ministry should be given more money and not less.
He said that the country was going into election and censors in 2023 saying that there is a need for increased advocacy to sensitize Nigerians.
He said that there will need to organize town halls, do documentaries, and visit Federal Government project sites among many other activities in the fiscal year.
“I fully understand the economic challenges the country is facing but I do not agree that the Ministry of Information and Culture should have less, actually it should have more.
“This is because it is in times of challenges and hardship that you need your Ministry Information not just to chronicle despite lack of funds but to combat fake news, disinformation, and hate speech which today has attained a height that is threatening our very existence as a nation.
“While I admit that our revenue is dwindling, there is no better time to have more money for the Ministry of Information and Culture,” he said.
He urged the committee to do all within its power to increase the budgetary allocation for better service delivery.
Also, the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Buki Ponle, told the committee that N1.8 billion has been allocated for personnel costs.
He said that N265.44 million was earmarked for overhead costs while only N58 million was allocated for capital expenditures.
Ponle urged the committee to support an amendment bill of the NAN establishment Act, saying that there is a need to review the Act to meet current realities.
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The Director-General of the NTA, Mr. Salihu Dembowhile presenting the authority’s budget told the committee that there is a 75 percent reduction in the capital expenditure.
He said that there is a need for the committee to look into funding for the agency to meet its mandate as stated in the Act.
The Director-General of The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) Mr. Olalekan Fadolapo commended the committee for the passage of the Act which has more regulatory powers for the agency.
According to him, we have stopped foreign content in local advertisements in Nigeria which cost one million dollars.
He said that Nigeria is blest with a population of about 200 million people and should not be importing voices from South Africa and exporting jobs.
The Director-general, however, said that the agency was only allocated N5 million for capital expenditures and 54 million for overhead.
He said that the allocation is grossly inadequate given that the agency just established 19 state offices with a proposed one billion naira Internally Generated Fund (IGR) for 2023.
“There is a need for the committee to look into our budgetary allocation to enable us to function properly,” he said.
The Chairman of the committee, Rep. Odebumi Olusegun (APC-Oyo) said that the budget for the information ministry in some states is bigger than that of the Federal Ministry.
He said that there is a need for better funding saying that the information is power saying that there is a need to look at revenue-generating performance.
“I call on the Ministry, Departments, and Agencies under the purview of this Committee to ensure due process, transparency, and accountability in utilization of any public fund entrusted in your custody in order to guarantee value for any public fund spent in any direction.
“To this perspective, our oversight on the implementation of the 2022 Appropriation Act will be strategic, thorough, and detailed to achieve the purpose it is expected to achieve,” he said.
He said that the committee will meet with the minister and the chief executive officers to fashion out plans that will improve funding.
