There is no allocation in the 2024 budget proposal for the population and housing census scheduled for next year.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Population Commission, Senator Abdul Ningi, disclosed this yesterday while submitting his panel’s report on the 2024 budget to the joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
He told his colleagues that there was no provision for the exercise in the National Population Commission’s budget proposal, which was submitted to the parliament for consideration.
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He informed the committee that if the money for the census was not provided for in the budget, the country would lose about N200 billion which has been spent by the commission in preparation for the exercise.
Ningi said, “They will appear tomorrow with proper documentation of how much they need. If we don’t get the money, the nation will lose, the people will lose.
“The money spent for the preparation for the census will go down the drain and it is a huge amount of money, over N200 billion already spent.”
The Chairman of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Adeola, assured that the federal parliament would look for funds for the 2024 population census in the budget.
Meanwhile, the Joint Committee on Appropriation has supported the inclusion of the controversial N1bn in the 2024 budget of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
The panel gave the support after receiving the report of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Industry, Trade and Investment on the Ministry’s 2025 budget.
Chairman of the Appropriation Committee of the federal parliament, Senator Solomon Adeola, however, said the federal lawmakers would carry out aggressive oversight to ensure that the fund was appropriately utilized.
The Minister, Doris Uzoka-Anite, had explained that the N1bn was for the maintenance of the ministry’s desk office at the World Trade Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.
However, the chairman of the joint panel on Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator Sadiq Umar, told the appropriation panel on Tuesday, that the money was meant to attract foreign investors across the world to Nigeria.
