The Federal Government has announced plans to review salaries of workers and number of government agencies, as parts of efforts to reduce cost of governance.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed announced this at a National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance in Nigeria organized by the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission, ICPC in Abuja.
Mrs Ahmed noted that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the salaries committee to carry out the review process, as well as review the number of government agencies in terms of their mandates pointing out that, government would consider merging agencies with similar mandate.
“Mr President has directed that the salaries committee that I chair, work together with the head of service and other members of the committee to review the government pay rolls in terms of stepping down on cost.
“Government expenditure is increasing to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.
“Government had approved a N13.88trn budget with a deficit of over N5.6trn with a projected revenue of N7.98trn to fund part of the 2021 budget,” she said.
The minister however said all agencies must agree and come together to trim their costs given the country’s dwindling revenue.
According to her, “the government would also remove some unnecessary items from the budget as a move to cut the cost of governance in the country.
“Our budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary”.
