Nigeria not getting enough value for N3.2bn spent on pipeline security – Minister
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has said that the billions of naira being spent on pipeline security to address vandalism across the country is not yielding expected results.
Ahmed was responding to questions from members of the House of Representatives after presenting the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) before the House Committee on Finance on Monday.
The minister said, “From what has happened in 2022, clearly what we are spending is not giving us much value because production continues to decline and what this means is whatever we are doing is not working and therefore we have to do something totally different.
“My understanding is that security agencies and the national oil company as well as the regulators have been working very hard to find solutions and what they tell us is that they are beginning to see improvement.
“Oil production in April was 1.3 million barrels per day and by July it was 1.4 million. We do hope that the increase will be very significant because it’s costing us not just N3.2 billion in terms of security cost, but the revenue we have earned”.
While responding on the Morocco/Nigeria gas pipeline project, she said the Federal Executive Council recently approved funding for the feasibility study on the project.
Speaking after her presentation, Chairman of the House committee on Finance, James Abiodun Faleke (APC Lagos) said, given Nigeria’s current financial situation, all revenue sources must be explored as the government was short of revenue.
He said it was clear that if there is no revenue, the country will suffer in every aspect.
He therefore called on all agencies appearing before the committee to provide the correct position of their revenue to the committee.
He warned that no agency would be allowed to play with revenue of the country.
(Daily Trust)
