The Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed says his ministry is under-funded with the meager fund allocated to it in the 2023 budget proposal.
The minister made this claim on Tuesday in Abuja when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation to defend the 2023 budget proposal.
He said while he was complaining that the N1.072 billion capital expenditure allocated to the information sector of his ministry in the 2022 budget was inadequate, it was slashed to a meagre N345.64 million in the 2023 budget proposal.
In his words, “It is really a difficult situation and I do not know how we are going to handle it.
“In times of challenges like this, that our country is going through, we need the information ministry to be fully equipped to properly inform the public
“This is the time the people need information and the voice of government should be heard on what we are doing in the areas of security, infrastructure and other sectors.
“We also need to tell the world what the government had done in the last seven years and we need fund for all these.
“I also believe that the 30 per cent cut in the 2023 budget proposal across board should not apply to the ministry, rather it should be increased because of the importance of information dissemination now than ever,’ the minister said.
The minister therefore appealed to the lawmakers to consider an increase in the budget proposal to enable the ministry discharge its statutory functions effectively.
