NewStats: 3,263,011 , 8,178,820 topics. Date: Wednesday, 04 June 2025 at 11:29 AM 3m6l4c

ABUJA-THE Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani cried out to the National Assembly for help, lamenting that persistent poor funding of the ministry was frustrating his service delivery, stressing that the chronic financial constraints have stifled its ability to meet its mandate effectively.

According to the minister’s note, the ministry has struggled to achieve its goals with the current funding structure, often relying on external sources to supplement its operations, adding that Key activities, such as international engagements to secure opportunities for the sector, have largely been financed through non-governmental means due to insufficient allocations.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja while defending the ministry’s budget before the t Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Cybersecurity chaired by Senator Shuaib Afolabi Salisu, APC, Ogun Central and Rep. Adedeji Stanley Olajide (PDP, Oyo), Tijani said, “This is a ministry that is extremely underfunded, and this is our collective responsibility, not just as a ministry, but also as a committee responsible for oversight of the work that we do.

“This ministry is unable to deliver its mandate if we continue to fund it in the way it is funded. To achieve what we’ve achieved so far, we’ve had to look for money outside of the government to get work done. A lot of the international trips that we’ve made to secure opportunities for this sector and the nation were funded from outside of government funds. We must emphasise the fact that this is a ministry that is poorly funded.

“So the budget we’re about to discuss today is not a significant worth of the time of all of us in this room, because these budgets cannot deliver on the mandate that we should be working for our nation.”

Reviewing the 2024 budget performance, he revealed that only ₦1.2 billion of the ₦2.9 billion capital budget had been released, representing a mere 39% of the total allocation, explaining that this shortfall had significantly hampered the ministry’s ability to implement its plans.

The Minister said, “Capital budget release was N2.9bn and as you can see, the amount released till date is less than half of this budget, which came to 1.2bn which has been fully spent, thus representing 39% of the total budget. “

Despite the challenges, Tijani reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to contributing to the country’s economic growth. He aligned the ministry’s efforts with the government’s GDP growth targets of 4.6% in 2025, 4.4% in 2026, and 5.5% in 2027. However, he stressed that these targets would remain unattainable without adequate investment in the ICT sector.

“However, if you look at the appropriation bill, you will find that one of the things that we’ve done is travelling all over the world and engaging with the World Bank is to believe that we should create opportunities for our sector, that we must create opportunities for stakeholders in this sector by ensuring that Nigeria can significantly invest in the strong backbone to drive the growth that we need to see.”

Drawing from a World Bank report, the Minister pointed out that improving connectivity quality by 10% could result in a 2.5% increase in GDP growth. He emphasized that the ICT sector holds the potential to sur the government’s growth targets if properly funded, said, “If you look at the numbers from the World Bank, they say if you can improve the quality of connectivity by 10%, you will be having about a 2.5% growth rate in the economy.

“There’s no other significant investment that is known today in any country that can lead to 2.5% increase which means if you take the current growth rate of our GDP, if our sector can contribute 2.5% to the GDP of Nigeria, Nigeria will be doing much more than 4.6% that we’re talking about today because this sector is extremely critical and this is why we’ve made very spirited arguments to fund us.”

Tijani also attributed the recent 50% increase in telecommunications tariffs to global inflation and rising operational costs, adding that the decision aligns with broader economic patterns, where tariffs can lead to higher consumer prices due to the added costs on imported goods.

Speaking to journalists moments after defending his Ministry’s budget of N12 billion for 2025 Tijani stated that 50% adjustment aligns with broader economic trends, just as he said that historically, tariffs act as a sales tax, causing a one-off price increase rather than sustained inflation.

He further explained that the Federal Government is planning to invest six billion naira to deploy ninety thousand kilometres of fibre optic cable, expanding the country’s capacity from 35,000 kilometres to 125,000 kilometers. This according to him is an initiative aimed at fostering growth in critical communication sectors.

Earlier during the budget defence session, the Chairman of the t Committee on ICT, Shuaib Afolabi, underscored the critical importance of the ICT sector to Nigeria’s economy, even as he emphasized that ICT was not just a standalone sector, but an enabler for other key areas, including education, health, and agriculture.

The Chairman who highlighted the need to maximise the sector’s potential, pointing out inefficiencies in the implementation of ICT projects across ministries and agencies, raised concerns about the lack of coordination in ICT initiatives, which he noted has led to suboptimal outcomes despite significant investments.

He said, “We want to take good advantage of the potential of ICT. In the last few days, we have seen ministries and agencies come here with ICT projects. People doing ICT projects that are not coordinated, leading to investments that did not give us the optimal result as a country. This is the time to harmonise some of these silos and initiatives that are being carried out.

“How do we explain the situation where in a particular ministerial and its agency, you have a digital library project at the ministry headquarters and you have a digital library project in one of the agencies, what happens if we harmonise.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/01/poor-funding-frustrating-my-work-bosun-tijani-cries-out/

They should sack this confused ode already

Which work is that?

🫢

One of the idiots that should have been fired

This man is a square peg in a round hole. Looking for money to loot

Nlfpmod, only a lazy man complain about his tool!

Poor funding from where?

Who is providing the poor funding....Tinubu or ordinary Nigerians?

This incompetent buffon should have been sacked long time ago.
He's on of the loudest critics of the previous istration. He's always have solutions to everything. Now that he has been given the opportunity to prove himself, he's cooking up nonsense excuses.
No funding but you can leave your primary role and start posting your farm pictures? KNDFE

Typical empty headed failure bereft of ideas

Tinubu's boy

Yimu.

slimfit1:
Which work is that?

He needs to itemize all the works so that Nigerians can follow not just citing travelling

This ministry should have been one of the strongest legs of the government now it is one of the weakest wonders of the world

ENDSARS Woke Minister! Na so Obi go be if voted in!

All these confused people insulting him...

Nigeria's internet services have been sluggish..one for the slowest speeds in the world..

Some communities still don't have cell phone towers or mast.

And you think funding isn't part of the issue..

Some people calling for his sack..like is that the problem on ground?

Probably the most unproductive minister. Just shows it is easy to criticize from the outside but given the opportunity to perform, we realize you are just an empty barrel.

Youths of Nigeria should be disappointed in this man. He is one of you with a portfolio that represents your future. Waste of space!!

Them use hype carry this one go place where him no know. He should have been used as a ing striker or false 9 if truly he possess those attributes that brought him to limelight, or it could just be another fraud in disguise.

Ha

AbuTwins:


ENDSARS Woke Minister! Na so Obi go be if voted in!

Be like na Obi make you no fit give woman belle

Tinubu decided to expose the youths by giving this guy who was adept at criticising from outside, now he has realised that the sweet sound of bitter Kola in the mouth is different from how it tastes

bt it won't stop u from looting

cjudy:

Be like na Obi make you no fit give woman belle

I don born three o!

Na you never born!

jimi4us:
They should sack this confused ode already

Like since last year.

Is he trying to build a new satellite or another network to compete with MTN and the likes? Or what does he need more funding?

He wants more funds to waste on nonsense AI and 3MMT nonsense when the likes of NIPOST, which he could have revived and properly digitalized to stop stealing people's packages, are already dead?

Very incompetent buffoon.

The Committee must insist that he discloses the source(s), details and utilisation of the foreign/extra- budgetary funds. This ICT Minister is the biggest disappointment of this era.

How?? Which work you want do..when dem fund well you go say..Ant ate the money

Money, money and more money. That's all they want

Thief!!! Untill una suck the country dry finnish una go rest

NinjaMetahuman:
Like since last year.

Is he trying to build a new satellite or another network to compete with MTN and the likes? Or what does he need more funding?

He wants more funds to waste on nonsense AI and 3MMT nonsense when the likes of NIPOST, which he could have revived and properly digitalized to stop stealing people's packages, are already dead?

Very incompetent buffoon.

You have seen it all my man ..the 3MMT he championed is a rubbish ..🤔

Pantami is better than this one

Cognitivereason:
All these confused people insulting him...

Nigeria's internet services have been sluggish..one for the slowest speeds in the world..

Some communities still don't have cell phone towers or mast.

And you think funding isn't part of the issue..

Some people calling for his sack..like is that the problem on ground?

no dunderhead.

That's not his job to build cell towers into communities without network. That's MTN and investment problem and lack of proper regulations which he is also fails to Do.

The likes of MTN make humongous profits every year and refuse to invest it back into their networks but instead repatriate those monies back to their countries in south Africa or India because there is no proper regulations.

The clown you are defending recently approved price raise for these same networks to make more dubious profits, without conditions to improve the networks and internet penetration.

Obidient minister
Bola Tinubu is a baddest