Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Pantami has defended over four point six billion naira appropriation for the ministry as projection for the 2023 fiscal year.
This was when he led heads of agencies under the ministry to appear before the joint Committees of the National Assembly.
The committees including the Senate Committee on Communications, its House counterpart, Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber security, as well as that of the House Committee on ICT and Cyber security.
Presenting the score cards of the ministry, Prof Pantami acknowledged the good working relations between the members of the National Assembly and his ministry which has continued to assist it to cover more grounds.
According to him, this synergy between the legislative arm and the Executive has continued to reduced the bottlenecks and administrative bureaucracy that his ministry could be contending with, citing the decision of the concerned committees to consider the budget proposal collectively as an instance.
The Digital Economy Minister informed his hosts that no fewer than Nineteen National policies, strategic to change Nigerian economy to a knowledge based one from commodity based economy have been developed, most of which he said have already been implemented.
Prof Pantami recognized with delight the diligence at which Startup bill was considered and passed by the National Assembly within a year, which has since been assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, he said such an Act is one of the Technology driven measures being developed by the ministry to sustain increased contribution of the ministry to the National GDP.
In the 2023 fiscal year, the ministry projected over 991 million naira as Personnel cost for the ministry, while the overhead and capital components of the budget are put at over 424 million naira, and 2.66 billion naira respectively.
Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Hon Akeem Adeyemi and another member of the House, Hon Ossai Nicholas Ossai raised concerns over zero budgetary allocation to the overhead and capital components of NIPOST, this the minister said was part of the inherited burden, but sought for legislative intervention.
Earlier, Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Ibrahim Mohammed Bomai and his counterparts from ICT and Cyber security Senator Yakubu Oseni who co- chaired the defence session had commended the ministry and agencies under it, with optimism that the collaboration will continue.
Among the heads of agencies that came with the minister include, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta, Engr. Aliyu A. Aziz the DG/CEO National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Sunday Adepoju, Postmaster-peneral for the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).