By Cecilia Ijuo
Abuja – The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says his ministry needs N82.10 million to organise the 2019 edition of Abuja Cultural Carnival.
Mohammed disclosed this during the ministry’s 2019 budget defence before the Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism on Tuesday in Abuja.
While highlighting the importance of tourism to national development, the minister said the carnival, an annual event, organised by the ministry was meant to showcase the country’s tourism potential.
He called for adequate funding to enable the ministry to organise the event well, adding that the 2018 edition with an appropriation of N62 million was not fully cash-backed.
Mohammed also said that besides not being fully cash-backed, the project was lumped with other items on capital component of the budget which were not adequately funded.
“Money for cultural carnival of national magnitude ordinarily, should be more than N82 million.
“But because of the synergy the ministry is having with the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) and other sponsors in terms of accommodation for participants from the various states, feeding, transportation etc, we made a modest proposal of N82 million,” he said .
On the achievements of the tourism sub-sector, the minister laid emphasis on the Cultural Centres established by Nigeria in China and Brazil.
He said the centres were good for promoting the country’s image and making other countries appreciate Nigeria and Nigerians better.
He said the centres, which had budgetary allocations of N25 million in 2018 and N35 million proposal for 2019, were very necessary for positive projection of the country’s image .
“Cultural Centres are meant for foreign image of the country. They promote tourism and even the economy of the owner- country .
“Though they are not revenue generating centres, but in the long run, they add value to the economy and citizens of countries that establish them,” he said.
According to the minister, the total budgetary proposal for the two arms of the Ministry, Information as well as Culture and Tourism) in the 2019 fiscal year is N5.30 billion.
He said of the amount, N3.39 billion was for Personnel Cost; N880.50million for Overhead and N1.3billion for Capital Expenditure.
He lamented that as a result of the removal N200 million from the overhead cost of the ministry in the 2018 budget and N1 billion from the capital allocation, the ministry was indebted to many of its service providers.
The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Fatima Raji-Rasaki, expressed concern over the poor capital releases to the tourism sub-sector in spite of its importance to the economy.
She assured the minister that the National Assembly would continue to play its role in promoting tourism in the country.(NAN)
