The Senate has knocked the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Doris Nkiruka-Anite Uzoka, over the allocation of N1billion for a foreign trip to Geneva, Switzerland, in the 2024 budget.
Uzoka appeared before the Senate Committee on Trade on Tuesday, December 12, to defend her budget.
The minister told the joint panel that N905 million is earmarked for overhead costs while N8.1 billion is allocated to capital expenditure.
Reacting to her presentation, Adams Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo north and a member of the committee, said: “I see that you intend to travel to Geneva next year and you have budgeted over N1bn for that.
We can’t keep going on with over bloated teams on foreign trips. Use the experts we have in your offices in the country to save cost.
Madam sit in your office and work for Nigerians. I have gone there twice. You are always in the Bank of Industry. If you preferred BoI, you should have declined the President’s nomination to be minister.
Let’s practise what we preach. We can’t talk about industrialisation and keep importing toothpicks and tyres. We must ensure that we have homegrown products.
What is our Balance of Trade, especially with China? Those countries exporting things to Nigeria are expected to build factories in Nigeria. We have to take advantage of our population to grow our industries,” he said.
In her response, the minister said, “I assure you that I can work from anywhere and give Nigerians results. My office is currently under renovation.
Sir, I regret to say that we seem to have no record of our Balance of Trade. Or at least, it doesn’t exist in the ministry and that is why we initiated a new unit called Trade Intelligence Unit to ensure that such data is generated and stored.”
However, Oshiomhole replied: “No Madam. I don’t agree that there is no data. Such data exists with the CBN, Customs and other agencies.”
