Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says that economic reforms and coordinated efforts across all levels of government are responsible for the nation’s success story in the ease of doing business.

The minister disclosed this at his ministry’s 2019 budget defence meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Information and National Orientation on Thursday in Abuja.

In 2018, Nigeria recorded unprecedented progress in the ranking of the World Bank as one of the 10 countries that made the most daring reforms to attract investors to do business in their domains.

The World Bank rating saw Nigeria move 24 places on the Ease of Doing Business to 145th position from 169th in 2017.

The country has, however, now dropped a spot on the latest ranking, moving from 145th to 146th. Mohammed said that his Ministry’s campaign efforts in the past year contributed to the success story of the country today.

The minister spoke on the achievements and plans of the Ministry to promote the achievements and policies of government. He said that exclusive campaign and enlightenment had so far been carried out which resulted in the country’s ranking in ease of doing business.

The minister further explained that the current administration had ensured more development across the country. Mohammed said that the Ministry’s budget stood at N3.40 billion of which personnel cost broken down into
salaries, consolidated payments, overtime payment allowances and contributions.

“Salaries and wages is estimated at N2.89 billion of which overtime payment is made up of consolidated salary for personnel,” he said.

For the overhead cost, the minister said, “we are proposing N880.51 million. The capital related to our information sector is N1.4 billion and capital which is common to both information and culture is N438.36 million, making a total of N1.84 billion. The total proposed budget for the information sector is N6.13 billion for both capital and personnel,” he said.

The committee commended the ministry for due diligence in the remittance of internally generated revenue into the federation account.

The lawmakers urged the government to address the challenge of finance and obsolete infrastructure facing the ministry.

The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Olusegun Odebunmi, while commending the ministry’s role in the nations advancement, said that the ministry could do more to address other challenges. (NAN)