By Abbanobi -Eku Onyekachi
Abuja
The Ministry of Regional Development has appealed to the National Assembly for increased funding to enable it to deliver on its mandate. The Minister, Abubakar Momoh, made this appeal on Tuesday in Abuja while defending the ministry’s 2025 budget proposals before the joint committee on regional development.
Momoh emphasized that the ministry is committed to securing adequate funding, stating that it is “not resting on its oars” in its request. He expressed the ministry’s desire to work closely with the committee to achieve a feasible and acceptable 2025 budget.
According to the proposed budget for the Ministry of Regional Development has a ceiling of N28.9 billion, comprising N24 billion capital expenditure and N4.9 billion recurrent expenditure.
The Minister’s appeal for increased funding is not an isolated case. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, also recently called for a higher budgetary allocation to enable his ministry to scale up its performance in key areas, particularly in skill development and employment generation ¹.
The Labour Minister emphasized that the current allocation of N46.079 billion for the ministry and its parastatals would be insufficient to achieve set objectives. He stressed the importance of skill development programs in generating sustainable job opportunities and promoting national economic growth.
In a related development, there have been calls for increased budgetary allocations to states and local governments to support development projects. The Federal Government has also been urged to prioritize budgetary allocations to critical sectors, such as education and healthcare.
The National Assembly’s response to these appeals for increased funding will be crucial in determining the success of these ministries in delivering on their mandates.
