The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibot-Ete Ibas, has stated that the Nigerian Navy needed more funding to effectively deliver on its mandate of securing the nation’s waterways.
This was as he also told the House of Representatives Committee on the Navy, that the organisation got over N884 million in 2020 as its internally generated revenue from stamp duty, auction of unserviceable equipment among others.
Making presentation before the committee at a budget defence session, Ibas said the Nigerian Navy’s priority projects for 2021 capital proposal are fleet renewal, operation’s logistics, fleet support infrastructure, capacity development and personnel welfare.
“The Nigerian Navy’s initial capital expenditure budget estimate for 2021 was N182.612bn, equivalent to $464,663,475. However, the Nigerian Navy had to review the estimates down to N20,315,649,968, which is equivalent to about $51m, which was the budget ceiling given by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
“For the 2021 Overhead Cost, the initial overhead proposed by the Navy was N38,362,386,414. This projection could, however, not be submitted as the Navy was pegged at N11,240,714,955, a budget ceiling given by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning. It is worth mentioning that the overhead budget provision is inadequate in the face of rising costs and the Nigerian Navy’s increasing operational deployments,” he said.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Yussuf Gagdi, in his remarks said his panel had embarked oversight visit to all naval formations under the Western and Eastern naval commands, and felt satisfied with implementations of past budgetary allocations.
He said recommendations of the committee to the larger house will chart a new path for measures directed at improving performance of the Nigerian Navy.
