N’assembly panel rejects ministry of solid minerals’ 2025 budget over low allocation

The national assembly joint committee on solid minerals has rejected the 2025 budget estimates of the ministry of solid minerals, citing inadequacy with the nation’s economic diversification goals.

The committee, chaired by Ekong Sampson, spoke after Dele Alake, the minister of solid minerals, presented the ministry’s budget proposal during a session on Friday.

The rejection of the budget was prompted by a motion introduced by Diket Plang (APC-Plateau) and supported by Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP-Kogi).

In his motion, Plang criticised the allocation, saying that the ministry received only N9 billion as part of its budget envelope, a significant reduction from the N539.7 billion it had proposed for capital expenditure in the 2025 budget.

The committee chairman also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the allocation, stressing the importance of a solid mineral sector to the diversification of the Nigerian economy.

“This is because of the potential in not addressing the key concerns in this sector at a time that Nigeria is in a grand need to diversify the economy,” Sampson said.

“The estimates presented before us are grossly inadequate and will not help our economy at this critical period, when we have to invest in the future, consistent with what obtains in other economies.

“We’ve taken this position in the interest of this country and as a support item to the vision of government as it were that this budget clearly needs a review.

“The need for this review clearly contemplates the peculiarities in the sector.

“Time has gone by and you have to take a very bold step in exploration, in data gathering, in tackling major drawbacks that have put us in dire situations as a nation richly endowed but faced, as it were with the contradictions in abundance.

“It is the view of the joint committee that the budget of this sector be reviewed upwards.

“I think that is the spirit of the meeting, in the meantime, we will suspend further decisions on this budget unless those steps are taken.

“The budget for this sector needs radical upward review. So the joint session rejects the estimate before us. We will step everything down.”

Gaza Gbefwi, the committee co-chairman, representing the Keffi/Karu/Kokona federal constituencies, also supported the decision to halt the budget defense process.

“I move that we suspend this budget screening for the ministry of solid minerals for the fact that what is appropriated to them, if it is true, is beyond imagination,” Gbefwi said.

“Also, we are here to pass a budget not for the ministry, not for us, but for Nigerians and the progress of this country.

“I, therefore, propose that we step down this screening of the budget presented to us and request that we invite the Minister of Planning and Budget to appear before this committee.”

Earlier, Alake said the ministry had proposed a total budget of N541.7 billion for 2025, comprising N539.7 billion for capital expenditure and N2 billion for overhead costs.

“In contrite distinction to the avowed objective of the economic diversification of Nigeria away from oil into green energy, into harnessing the solid minerals sector, the envelope that the ministry received was a far cry from our proposal,” the minister said.

“We proposed N539.7 billion for capital in 2025, but the envelope that came is a paltry N9 billion.”

‘MINISTRY OF SOLID MINERALS RELY ON YOUR SUPPORT TO CORRECT ANOMALY’

Speaking on the ministry’s 2024 budget performance, Alake said while the overhead costs were fully implemented at 100 percent, the capital expenditure recorded a poor performance of 18 percent due to limited budget releases.

The minister said the unexpected shortfall in budget releases significantly hindered the ministry’s ability to execute its capital projects in 2024.

“When I did a panoramic view of the entire budget from other ministries, it is a kind of a general problem. The budget releases were not as expected which really hampered the capital budget in 2024,” he said.

“We rely on your support and effort to correct this anomaly, because if we are going to achieve all our objectives, there is no way we can achieve them.”

On revenue generation, Alake revealed that the ministry generated N37.8 billion in 2024, surpassing its projection of N11 billion.