Budget office recommends closure of underfunded foreign missions

Tanimu Yakubu, director-general of the budget office, has recommended the closure of  the nation’s underfunded foreign missions. 

Yakubu spoke on Tuesday during the ministry of foreign affairs 2025 budget defence hearing organised by the house of representatives committee on foreign affairs.

The ministry was said to have proposed a budget of N1.5 trillion, but the federal government reduced it to N286 million.

Wole Oke, chairman of the committee, faulted the slash, stating that foreign missions are meant to protect the country’s image, hence should be adequately funded.

“I have not seen anywhere in our laws where envelop budgeting is mentioned,” he said.

Responding, Yakubu recommended the closure of some foreign missions until the government is able to fund them.

“Why don’t we consider a significant reduction of our foreign missions until we’re able to improve our revenue?” he asked.

“We have 109 diplomatic missions abroad, comprising of 76 embassies, 22 high commissions and 11 consulates. The problem as you rightly described it is ubiquitous.

“The situation was certainly worse three years ago when Nigeria’s debt service claimed almost 100 percent of the country’s revenue.

“We started to see improvement under this administration, when through debt financial engineering in year one, debt service was brought from as high as 100 percent to 55 percent.

“If you talk to our missions abroad, they will tell you that last year was the year they started experiencing some relief. We’re still not there yet.

“Bold reforms have been embarked on by the current administration, starting with the liberalisation of the foreign exchange rate, and the withdrawal of subsidy on PMS and other products.

“We expect to save about N11 trillion from this two models adopted. The savings started to materialise in October last year but the main beneficiaries, especially the state governments, collected the money and kept mute. But we knew that they took a lot more than they have for several years.”

Yakubu asked the lawmakers to pass the tax reform bills to enable the government ramp up revenue generation.