Business
Senate Passes Federal Media Agencies’ Budget
The Senate last Thursday passed the 2017 budget of parastatal agencies under the Federal Ministry of Information.
This followed the presentation of the report of the 2017 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Budget and Expenditure of Federal Government-owned information agencies during plenary.
Such agencies are National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
The Senate, however passed N132.5 million for newsmen while its projection for the year was N132.5 million.
Presenting the report, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, Sen. Suleiman Adokwe said the agency’s IGR performance for 2016 was 97.54 per cent.
He further said that the actual IGR budget for 2016 was N129.2 million while the expenditure was N129.2 million
The chairman said that the committee observed that NAN needed to widen its revenue base through introduction of new products.
The senate also passed that of NTA which was N4 billion; NBC, N2 billion while that of FRCN was also N2 billion.
While considering the report, Sen. Jibrin Barau decried why some of the agencies were not able to make the appropriate remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
“If these agencies are able to make those remittances, there would be more monies to fund the budgets,” Barau said. Also, Sen. Mao Ohuabunwa said the agencies were income-generating and as such, expected to remit to the CRF.
“We must ensure we enforce these agencies to pay at least the 20 per cent remittance; even if they cannot, at the end of the year we should see at least a remittance of 10 per cent into the CRF,” he said. Similarly, Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi noted that “these things keep recurring by these agencies.
“It shows that we truly have a responsibility within the chamber to sit up and look at these expenditure profiles as it will align with the revenue profiles of these agencies,” he said.
“This is a clear manifestation that these agencies run accounts that do not pass the litmus test and approval of the financial regulations as enshrined.
“We must rise to the responsibility, particularly on IGR budgets so that at the end of the day, we will be able to make enough savings,” Hunkuyi said. Responding to questions raised, the chairman said the IGR performances of the agencies were far below expectation.
“If you look at NTA, there are a lot of government agencies that are owing NTA.”
Adokwe said that as government corporations having fundamental duties, they must ensure they did not go off air.
Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.
Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.
The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.
Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.
“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.
“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”
Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.
In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.
Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.
Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.