Senate Committee Summons Finance Minister Over N206bn

The Senate Committee on Special Duties has summoned the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed to appear before its members and explain the purpose of the insertion of N206 billion in the 2023 budget for the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

BY THE DELTAN NEWS DESK

November 23, 2022

9:38 am

Chairman of the committee issued the summons on Monday, November 21, when the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq came to defend her ministry’s 2023 budget proposal on Monday.

A member of the committee, Senator Ishaku Abbo, had asked the Humanitarian Affairs minister about N206 billion in the budget that the ministry intends to borrow.

“In 2023, you intend to borrow N206 billion for a project. What are the projects to be implemented and is it captured in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. If it is, what are the specific projects’ location and activities attached to this?” Abbo asked.

Responding, the minister said: “Yes, we made mention of the projects for 2022 which was not released and part of it was for the Northeast Development Commission (NEDC). The money was not released and now we have seen it recurring by almost 10 folds.

“We are also going to clarify from the Ministry of Finance to know why this increase in spite of the fact that the previous year, the money was not even released for the project. So, we will get the details then send to you on that.”

“On upscaling of the National Social Safety-Net Project (NSSNP), these projects under the National Social Safety-Net, the Condition Cash Transfer, the updating of the National Social Register and the Rapid Response Register (RRR) are to cushion the effect of inflation.

“This is all I can say for this. I cannot really give full details of how this amount is going to be utilized because it is something that was negotiated between the Ministry of Finance and World Bank,” she added.

On this premise, the chairman of the committee, therefore, approved the motion to summon the Minister of Finance to appear before the committee to give an explanation about the N206 billion.