THE Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu, says the amount allocated to the ministry in the 2024 budget was not capable of fighting poverty in the country.
The Minister stated this on Tuesday when she led officials of her ministry and parastatals under it, to defend her 2024 budget before the Joint National Assembly Committee of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, chaired by Senator Idiat Adebule.
She said her ministry was given an overhead ceiling of N532.5bn which represents a 28 per cent increase over the 2023 budget to cushion the effects of inflation.
It is pertinent to note that the 28 per cent increase in the overhead ceiling is not commensurate to the 27.33 percent inflation rate in the economy today, she noted.
Edu said, “Conversely, the capital budget ceiling was reduced from N3.7bn in 2022 to N1.328316bn in 2023 and it represents a 71 per cent reduction.