The Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation has called for adequate budgetary release to the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture to enhance its function.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Suleiman Adokwe, made the call in an interview with Senate correspondents in Abuja on Thursday.
Adokwe spoke shortly after officials of the ministry, led by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, defended their 2019 budget proposal before the committee.
The senator noted that effective information management was critical to the success of government policies and programmes, hence the need for adequate funding of the sector.
He said the committee would do its best to help the ministry to keep pace with the rapid advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
“There are so many gadgets that were bought for NTA during CHOGM and the All African Games that you cannot use today.
“You have to recalibrate or cannibalise them to bring them up to standard for them to properly function nowadays,” he said.
Earlier at the budget defence, the minister said a total of six billion naira had been proposed for the ministry in the 2019 fiscal year.
He gave the breakdown as three billion naira representing 50 per cent as personnel cost and one billion naira or 16.6 per cent as capital budget for the information sector alone.
According to him, N438 million has been earmarked for capital projects for both the information and culture sectors, while N880 million or 14 per cent proposed for overhead.
Giving the performance of the ministry’s budget for 2018, Mohammed said out of N564 million appropriated for capital projects, N300 million representing 53 per cent was released.
“For overhead, N660 million was budgeted out of which N440 million was released, representing 67 per cent performance.
“The sum of N206 million was appropriated for capital projects common to both the information and culture sectors, such as purchase of office equipment, renovation of office building.
“But only N126 million was released. We spent N119 million representing 96 per cent.
“Under rehabilitation of office building and the National Institute of Public Information, N94 million was released and we have expended N80 million leaving a balance of N14 million,” he said.
The minister disclosed that the ministry’s internally generated revenue in 2018 stood at N28 million.
He listed the sources as tender fees, rent of halls, sale of publications and revenue from the Federal Government printing press, which amounted for the lion share.
