Jumoke Olasunkanmi
ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has expressed dissatisfaction over the allocation of N1.2 billion for the acquisition of office buildings for the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) operations in the 2024 agriculture budget.
It said its concern stems from the fact that NADF is meant to be an additional fund for the agricultural sector that will mitigate the challenges of low releases, lack of releases, and untimely releases, and to put in more funding for the agricultural sector in key areas where there are urgent needs and where gaps exist.
The organisation said it was also worried that N70 million was allocated for office furniture, partitioning and fittings in the capital budget, especially after earmarking N27.5 million for office rent and maintenance.
Programme Manager for Food and Agriculture at AAN, Azubike Nwokoye, conveyed these concerns during a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja.
He also labeled the allocation of N10 million for residential quarters in the recurrent expenditure as worrisome.
Nwokoye further noted that if new buildings and furniture were provided in the first year, maintenance should not be necessary, as these are fixed assets requiring no maintenance for one to three years.
Questioning the allocation of N450 million for operational vehicles, he raised concerns about the necessity and quantity required for NADF.
He remarked, “This is not necessary. A brand new operational staff bus costs about N30 to N50 million, and the fund cannot use more than three of such buses aside from very few executive cars.”
He, however, commended President Bola Tinubu for the provision of the take-off grant for NADF, noting that “the 2024 budget allocated to the NADF has a total sum of N102.5 billion out of the total agriculture sector budget of N362 billion. This is 28 per cent of the overall sector budget for agricultural financing.”
He recommended that the N100 billion allocation for capital expenditure for NADF should be directed towards achieving the commitments of the president’s state of emergency on the food security situation.
Specifically, he suggested focusing on extension services, access to credit, women and youth in agriculture, and appropriate labor-saving technologies and inputs.
According to Nwokoye, the fund should also concentrate on post-harvest loss reduction support in processing and storage facilities, training, market access, irrigation, climate resilience and sustainable agriculture.
