The minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has condemned the slow release of budgetary allocation to execute projects that will increase food productivity in the country.
The minister made this known when he received the Senate Committee on Agriculture led by its chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu in Abuja. The committee paid an oversight visit to assess the level of implementation of 2016 budget in the ministry.
Ogbeh stated that the ministry had only received four per cent of its budgetary allocation for 2016 budget for the sector. He further stressed that the released fund was small for the implementation of programmes and projects which would lead to food security in the country.
He added that the delay has affected 2016 wet season farming and programmes that would stimulate the economy and national income.
However, he said the ministry had gone through the processes of advertisement, bidding and followed due process, which was concluded a few days ago. He said the ministry received close to 7, 000 bids, out of it “we earned N70 million and it was paid into the Single Treasury Account.”
“Going through the bids, it took us sometime, and we did not want to skip any of the processes because we don’t want to break any of the laws of the land.”
He stressed the need to cut short the processes because there was no money in circulation.
