January 15th, 2025
Some revenue-generating agencies have been given 48-hour to appear before the or risk being withdrawn from government funding for 2025 operations by the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance.
This is due to the failure to honour invitations for their 2025 budget defence and their revenue-generating profile.
Speaking during the second day of the revenue profiling exercise, Chairman of the Senate Committee of Finance, Senator Sani Musa (APC-Niger), said President Bola Tinubu, while presenting the 2025 budget to the National Assembly, mandated all ministers and heads of agencies to appear to defend their respective budgets before the Assembly.
According to Senator Musa, members of the National Assembly had to cut short their Christmas holidays to attend to the national assignment.
“But to our dismay, a lot of agencies have refused to honour our invitations to appear before us, for us to scrutinise their performances in 2024 and look at their 2025 projection, if it is justifiable.
“These agencies have refused to honour the Joint Committee’s invitation.
“So, by virtue of the constitutional powers given to the Joint Committees on Finance of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, we are given the chief executives of these agencies 48 hours within which to appear before this Joint Committee.
“If these agencies are self-funded, we will also request both the Minister of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to withhold their funding,” he said.
The agencies include the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian Postal Service (NPS), and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC).
Others are the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority and the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The Nigerian Copyright Commission, National Insurance Commission, National Pensions Commission, National Space and Research Development Agency, and the Nigerian Metrological Agency are also included.