From Kenneth Udeh, Abuja
The 2024 N549.6 Billion budgetary projection of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has been approved by the Nigerian Senate , this is just as the Lawmakers commended the Government Owned Enterprise for the judicious use of it’s 2023 revenue , capital and recurrent expenditure.
The 2023 budget performance of the agency was presented at the joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on communications presided by Senator Ikra Bilbis (Zamfara Central) which had in attendance the EVC/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida.
The NCC Boss provided answers to various questions posed by the Lawmakers bothering on security, revenue generation, data protection and infractions found in the 2023 budget report of the NCC.
Senator Steve Karimi in his contribution during the meeting stated that the report provided by the NCC is up to date. The Kogi West Lawmaker while contributing to an observation made their House of Representatives counterpart said that there no discrepancies in the report.
He said; “The report we have is an updated report and we have the latest performance report. Check the performance based on the report.
Delta North Senator, Ned Nwoko commended the profile of the of NCC Boss adding that his profile was quite impressive. Nwoko urged Aminu to improve the affairs of the Agency.
In his submission Aminu informed the Lawmakers of the resolve of the commission not make “operators sanctions” as its main source of revenue.
According to him the NCC has deviced measures to make easy for operators in the country to comply with its regulatory directives.
“For us, charging the operators is not an efficient way of encouraging them. We don’t want to make sanctions as a source of revenue. That is why we increased our budget for regulatory expenses, Aminu stated.
The inability of the NCC to provide information to track Kidnappers, bandits and other criminals was raised by the Lawmakers.
In his response Aminu stated that he and his team were working tirelessly to address the issue stressing that the Agency is working in synergy with the Nation’s security agencies to provide a platform which will aid the easy tracking of criminals to solve the Nation’s security problems.
According to the 2023 budget performance report presented by the NCC Boss which ended on December 31st an actual revenue of N448.1bn was realised out of a projected budget of N559.080bn. Its total recurrent expenditure stood at N67.072bn while its capital expenditure was at N3.6m.
Subsequently the 2024 N549.6bn budget proposal of the Agency was approved via voice votes of the committee members following a motion moved by Senator Tahir Monguno (Borno North) and was ratified by the commitee chairman Senator Ikra Aliyu.