Tag: budget review

  • Hardship: Obi calls for 2024 budget review

    Hardship: Obi calls for 2024 budget review

    Peter Obi the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP),  has called for a complete review” of the 2024 budget.

    Obi made this statement via the X platform on Monday, saying that the need for a review stemmed from recent controversies surrounding the allocations of resources in the budget.

    “Having followed the controversies trailing the 2024 budget, and having read some of the budgetary provisions and allocations of resources, I wish to respectfully appeal for a total review of the entire budget,” he said.

    According to him, Nigeria is home to 20 million out-of-school children, adding that Nigeria needs “to take our children off the streets and give them access to basic education.”

    Continuing he noted that the need to allocate adequate funding to critical sectors such as security, poverty alleviation, food security, and power supply.

    “The nation’s resources should adequately be appropriated to critical areas like security, fighting poverty and solving the challenges of hunger and food insecurity, power supply, especially considering the difficult times that we are in,” he stressed.

    The Anambra born politician  highlighted the nation’s struggles with hunger, food insecurity, and inadequate power supply.

    “We have become one of the hungriest nations in the world and one of the most difficult nations in the world to live in, with food prices constantly going out of the reach of most Nigerians. Power supply is abysmally poor, and Nigerians are now mostly in total darkness, as over 60% are without power supply,” he lamented.

    “We now hold the enviable position of having the highest number of out-of-school children, with about 20 million out-of-school children. We need to take our children off the streets and give them access to basic education.

    “I, therefore, urge our executive and legislative arms to consider the many challenges facing our nation and re-allocate resources to these very critical areas. This is the time for complete sacrifice,” Obi wrote.

  • Reps panel mulls budget review  for consumer tribunal, seeks implementation of Pay-As-You-Go verdict on Multichoice

    Reps panel mulls budget review for consumer tribunal, seeks implementation of Pay-As-You-Go verdict on Multichoice

    The House of Representatives Committee on Commerce has said that it will consider an upward review of the budgetary allocation to Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT).

    The committee also sought the implementation of the judgment the tribunal passed against Multichoice Nigeria Ltd. on “Pay-As-You-Go“.

    Ayotomiwa Ayodele, CCPT Head of Corporate Communications and Strategy Unit, disclosed this on Saturday in a statement issued in Abuja.

    She said the lawmakers promised to look into the complaint of the tribunal arising from the cut in its 2023 budgetary provision with a view to reviewing the allocation.

    The Chairman of the House Committee, Rep. Femi Fakeye, commended the tribunal for a job well done in the year under review.

    The statement quoted CCPT Chairman, Hajia Saratu Shafii, as saying that the tribunal’s 2023 budget was slashed by 38 per cent.

    Shafii urged the committee to look into the budget and use its power of allocation to improve the lots of the tribunal in order for it to achieve better service delivery.

    The statement quoted the lawmaker as seizing the opportunity to inquire about one of the major cases brought before the tribunal which involved Multichoice Nigeria Ltd.

    According to her, Hon. Thomas Okosun, the presiding member of the three-man panel that adjudicated on the case, highlighted the verdicts of the tribunal and the recent judgment on the Stay-of Execution filed by Multichoice.

    She said the committee thereafter tasked the tribunal to ensure that the “Pay-As-You-Go“ stance was enforced to curb the unreasonable payment of unused services by Multichoice subscribers across the country.