The joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and his counterpart in the Budget and Economic Planning Ministry, Abubakar Bagudu, to appear before it in furtherance of the budget defense for the Ministry of Niger Delta Development.
The summon is the sequel to the appearance of the Minister for Niger Delta Development, Abubakar Momoh, before the joint committee chaired by Senator Jide Ipinsagba. During the interface, a member of the committee, Senator Seriake Dickson, raised a motion to adjourn the sitting indefinitely until both Ministers of Finance and Budget and Economic Planning appear with the Minister of Niger Delta Development to shed more light on the poor budgetary envelope for the Ministry of Niger Delta Development, fund released for projects among others.
Earlier, the minister had shared with the joint committee, the 2023 budget performance and answered questions about project execution, project abandonment, fund releases, and a commutative debt portfolio of the ministry totaling over N50billion.
Momoh said that for the 2023 budgetary provision of N11billion only N4billion was released from the capital budget which represents about 37% which he described as inadequate to meet the challenges of the region.
While answering questions on training and empowerment for women and youths in the region, the minister said there was nothing the ministry could do, if money is not released for training and empowerment and as such, the training and acquisition of knowledge is slowed down.