The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has allocated N1bn in its 2024 National Agricultural Budget for the purchase of the NADF building.
News About Nigeria gathered that the organisation also allocated N70 million for the purchase of office furniture, partitioning, and fittings in the capital budget, and this is in addition to the budget line provision of N27.5 million for office rent and office building maintenance.
This, however, did not go down well with some people, as ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has expressed its disappointment in the proposed items of the organization’s budget for 2024.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, the Programme Manager of Food and Agriculture at AAN, Mr. Azubike Nwokoye, stated that NADF’s budget was worrisome and therefore a source of concern.
He noted that NADF was established to be an additional fund for the agricultural sector to alleviate challenges related to low, lack of, or untimely releases of funds, adding that these funds are supposed to provide additional funding for urgent needs and gaps that existed within the agricultural sector.
Nwokoye further condemned the allocation of N450 million for the purchase of operational vehicles, stating that it was not necessary and the organisation did not need such large amounts of vehicles for them to operate.
He maintained that a brand new operational staff bus costs about N30 to N50 million, and the fund cannot require more than three of such buses, in addition to a few executive cars.
He, therefore, recommended that the N100 billion allocated for capital expenditure for the NADF be targeted at fulfilling the commitments made by the president regarding the food security emergency in the country.
