FIGHTING CORRUPTION? EFCC earmarks N900m for transportation, training

The Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) led by Abdulrasheed Bawa, plans to spend N920,921,105 on traning and transportation of its operatives to different locations within and outside the country in 2022.

This is part of EFCC’s budget contained in the 2022 Appropriation Bill submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly last week.

A copy of the bill, reportedly seen by Peoples Gazette, gave a breakdown of how the anti-graft agency will use the money.

The EFCC said it plans to spend N81,316,531 for “local travel and transport for training,” while “local travels and transport others” will take N700,201,435.

Also, “International travel: training” will take N80,752,521, while “international travel: others” will be at the cost of N58,650,618.

Meanwhile, the federal government plans to borrow to finance the N6.258 trillion deficits in the proposed 2022 budget.

The director-general of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, had disclosed that the Nigeria’s total public debt stock rose from N33.11tn as of March 31, 2021 to N35.47tn as of June 30, 2021.

This shows an increase of N2.36tn or 7.13 per cent increase within the three-month period.

The total external debt stock rose from N12.47tn as of March 31 to N13.71tn as of June 30, indicating an increase of N1.24tn or 9.94 per cent.

The total domestic debt stock rose from N20.64tn as of March 31 to N21.75tn as of June 30, indicating an increase of N1.11tn or 5.38 per cent.

At the end of Q2 2021, external debt stock made up 38.66 per cent while domestic debt stock made up 61.34 per cent of the total public debt stock.

The debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio rose from 21.13 per cent to 21.92 per cent within the second quarter.

At the end of the second quarter, a breakdown of external debt stock showed that multilateral debt (from World Bank Group and African Development Group) led the list of Nigeria’s creditors with a share of 54.88 per cent.

The second highest was commercial debt (from Eurobonds and Diaspora Bonds) with a share of 31.88 per cent.

It was followed by bilateral debts (from China, France, Japan, India and Germany) with a share of 12.70 per cent.