About 10 agencies under the presidency will spend a total of N485, 591million to have refreshment and meals this year.
This is contained in the 2024 budget appropriation act, recently assented to by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In the expenditure document, State House Headquarters will spend N176.6m for refreshment, State House Operations got N33.7m for the same purpose and State House Liaison Office Lagos got N20.6m.
Also, Chief of Staff Office will use N20.7m for refreshment and meals, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) will spend N15m, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will spend N71.3m and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) got N46.4m to spend on refreshment.
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Similarly, the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) will spend N26.8m on refreshment and meals, while the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has got N23.8m and Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President will spend N5.1m on refreshment and meals in 2024.
If the amount budgeted for the refreshment of just a few officials and their visitors is to be shared among all Nigerians, each Nigerian will go home with N2.1m.
Nigeria’s current total population is 226,570,138 as of Monday, January 8, 2024.
Food prices have spiralled beyond what millions of Nigerians can afford, forcing tens of them to turn to begging in order to eat.
This year, Nigeria is expected to see about 26.5m people grappling with high levels of food insecurity, as disclosed by the federal government and its partners during the unveiling of the October 2023 Cadre Harmonisé analysis on food insecurity.
Moreover, approximately 9m children are at risk of suffering from acute malnutrition or wasting. Of these, an alarming 2.6m children could face Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and require critical nutrition treatment.
he Cadre Harmonisé, an initiative focused on food and nutrition analysis, conducts studies biannually (in March and October) across 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
With FG’s leadership and the United Nations (UN) system’s support, the latest projection for 2024 indicates a sharp rise from the 18.6m people currently vulnerable to food insecurity from October to December 2023.
The analysis said several factors are driving this trend, including ongoing conflicts, climate change impacts, escalating inflation, and rising costs of both food and essential non-food commodities (in part due to the devaluation of the naira and the discontinuation of the fuel subsidy). Persistent violence in the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) hinders food availability and access.
Additionally, armed banditry and kidnappings in Northwest and North-central states, including Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Benue and Niger, exacerbate the prevailing economic struggles.
