We didn’t give N300m subvention to NITDA – NCC
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has denied giving N300 million to National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as subvention. An online newspaper had reported that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami had forced NCC to pay N300m subvention to NITDA. But the NCC denied this in a statement signed […]
From left: Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Ms Harriet Thompson and Head of the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme, Mr Idongesit Udoh, during the Letter of Intent signing in Abuja.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has denied giving N300 million to National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as subvention.
An online newspaper had reported that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami had forced NCC to pay N300m subvention to NITDA.
But the NCC denied this in a statement signed by its Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, at the weekend.
‘’We state unequivocally that this information is a mere falsehood’’, Nkemadu said.
The statement said in order to put the records straight, no agency of the Federal Government gives subvention to another agency as by extant laws of the government, every agency makes its budget and gets approval for appropriation from the National Assembly and such budgets are spent according to the appropriation of the National Assembly.
‘’Our budget doesn’t contain any allocation for subvention let alone granting same to a sister’ agency’’, he said.
According to Nkemadu, “we cannot create a provision in our budget for another agency to implement”.
He said subventions to all agencies are done by the Federal government with resources domiciled in the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). Even salaries to Ministries Department and Agencies (MDA) come from there.
According to him, NITDA as an agency of Government also draws its budget and spends same to execute their own programmes as they deem fit.
“whoever thinks so, simply threw caution to the wind by rolling up speculative information that we know nothing about let alone implementing” he said.
The Director said “we have not done any partnership with NITDA to warrant any subvention for capacity building let alone implementing one, “So the aspect of creating a budget for subvention is not true”.