Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, sounded a warning on Tuesday, expressing concern that the allocated budget for her ministry in 2024 could not effectively combat poverty in the country.
Addressing the Joint National Assembly Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, chaired by Senator Idiat Adebule, Dr. Edu led officials from her ministry and affiliated parastatals to defend the 2024 appropriation bill.
She highlighted that her ministry received an overhead ceiling of N532.5 billion, marking a 28 percent increase from the 2023 budget to mitigate the impact of inflation.
Dr. Edu underscored the significance of recognizing that the 28 percent increase in the overhead ceiling did not align with the current 27.33 percent inflationary rate in the economy. Contrarily, she pointed out a substantial reduction in the capital budget ceiling, decreasing from N3.7 billion in 2022 to N1.328316 billion in 2023, representing a substantial 71 percent reduction.
Dr Edu said, “However the pittance capital ceiling of N1.535 billion which is an increase from the current year’s budget does not in any way match with the mandate of the ministry’s headquarters in order to shrink poverty in Nigeria.”
“There was an over 71 per cent reduction between 2022 and 2023 so the minimal increase between 2023 and 2024 does not in any way match with the mandate which we have been given and what is expected of us.”
She therefore pleaded with the committee chairman and members to intervene in the matter in the interest of poor Nigerians.
She continued, “The burden lies on us to actually tackle the issue of poverty with sincerity.
“One thing you can take from myself and my team working under the guardian of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is that he truly wants Nigerians to be out of poverty.
“Except the budget is appropriated for it, we would be completely unable to meet that mandate.
“It will be words that would not be matched with actions. I am happy that you represent constituencies and senatorial zones a lot is being expected of you from the Government in your constituencies to meet their real sincere demands.
“That is the reason why this committee must go beyond board to ensure that the present budget which was given to the Ministry and agencies is carefully looked into, reconsidered and something more reasonable and in keeping with the realities on ground is done.
“The ministry has several special projects which I will not like to mention and we intend to use these special projects as agencies under us to meet the target.”