The Budget Office of the Federation has debunked claims that the North East Development Commission (NEDC) operates a ₦246 billion salaries budget, describing such assertions as misleading and stemming from a misunderstanding of Nigeria’s federal budgeting process.
In a statement on Thursday, the Director General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, explained that the ₦246.77 billion allocation for the NEDC in the federal budget is a statutory lump-sum provision presented at an aggregate level—not solely intended for personnel costs.
Yakubu said, “The claim that the NEDC exists merely to pay salaries is unfounded. It conflates technical budget presentation with actual expenditure intent, ignores legislative appropriation dynamics, and disregards project-level evidence already embedded in official documents.”
He further clarified that for statutory and quasi-statutory bodies, initial budget allocations are often presented in bulk under the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), particularly when agencies have not yet submitted detailed economic breakdowns.
In such cases, figures may temporarily appear under the Personnel Cost heading as a technical placeholder, pending legislative adjustments and approved reallocations during budget execution.
Yakubu also addressed concerns regarding capital expenditure, noting that the ₦2.70 billion cited by some commentators reflects a National Assembly-approved rephrasing of capital votes in the 2025 budget, with roughly 70 per cent deferred to 2026.
He emphasized that this does not indicate an absence of development projects.
“The NEDC continues ongoing interventions across the North East, including agricultural support programmes, food security initiatives, orphanage construction, rehabilitation of internally displaced persons’ camps, borehole projects, security logistics, and constituency-level development,” Yakubu said.
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He stressed that personnel costs are necessary for the commission to fulfill its mandate, funding engineers, project managers, procurement officers, and monitoring teams to effectively design, supervise, and deliver projects.
Yakubu concluded by urging accurate public scrutiny of the budget and warned against spreading misinformation that misrepresents the NEDC as an agency existing solely to pay salaries.
“Genuine public scrutiny is welcome and encouraged, but it must be informed by an understanding of how the budget system works,” he added.
The clarification comes amid public debate over the size of the NEDC allocation and its breakdown between salaries and development projects, highlighting the need for informed discussion of federal budgeting practices.