N11.8bn Budget for Take-off for Livestock Ministry Grossly Inadequate, Says N’Assembly
* Seeks supplementary appropriation to address shortfall
Sunday Aborisade, Abuja
The National Assembly joint Committee on Livestock Development has said that the budgetary envelope of N11.8 billion proposed for the take-off of the recently created Federal Ministry of Livestock Development is grossly inadequate.
The Federal Government, in the 2025 Appropriation Bill, had urged the National Assembly to approve N10 billion as capital expenditure and N1.8 billion as overhead for the ministry.
The minister, Mr. Idi Maiha, led the management staff of the ministry and heads of agencies to defend the budget before the joint committees of the National Assembly.
He said activities for the smooth take-off of the ministry, which was created three months ago, had started with necessary structures being put together.
He said some departments had been drafted to the new ministry from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, from which the new ministry was carved out.
The minister said the ministry had yet to have office accomodation, lacked facilities, necessary office and operational equipment to run as a full fledged ministry.
He said: “The ministry is currently being accommodated by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
Maiha said his ministry had initiated talks with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to secure adequate office accommodation.
The minister said though the budget might be small, it will provide a roadmap to get the effective take-off of the ministry.
He said the ministry was committed to addressing negative climate change and other environmental challenges.
He also said it would open up avenues for the youth and women to engage in economic activities in the livestock sector.
He added that process were ongoing to statutorily transfer livestock-related federal agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture to the livestock ministry.
He said within the budgetary envelope, capital projects will be shared across geopolitical zones.
The minister said its projects will be market driven to attract local and foreign investments.
The ministry, he stated, will engage in massive well coordinated sensitization campaign across national and local media to project it.
The joint committee asked the minister to harmonise adequate financial needs and present it again, in the form of supplementary budget.
The joint committee assured the minister that the National Assembly would ensure its accelerated passage.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Livestock Development, Hon. Wale Raji, queried the amount of input from the Presidential Implementation Committee for the take-off of the ministry.
Raji said: “There will be need for you to make special presentation on this and come up with supplementary budget that will reflect the hope of Nigerians.
“The budget is abysmally low to respond to the yearnings of Nigerians.”
The Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Musa Mustapha, said the committees “will try our best to see how we can help the ministry achieve its mandate”.
He said the meeting was a foundation laying but that the ministry must buckle down as it is expected of it to give progress report on the challenges raised for the joint committee to make necessary intervention.
