Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed has eventually opened up on the N206 billion padding allegation in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs 2023 budget.

Zainab in a statement by the Special Adviser, Media & Communications, Ministry of Finance, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, said:

“The N206 billion is an oversight. The N206 billion is for the national social safety nets project funded by the World Bank and domiciled in the Humanitarian Ministry.”

“The wrong coding resulted in the item being wrongly captured as “purchase of security equipment” and had nothing to do with budget padding but an oversight.”

“The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management should have called the attention of the budget office to the anomaly like her counterparts in other ministries.”

“The Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Power, among others, also committed the same error.”

“Before I comment on the content of the comment, let me comment on the context. I was at the briefing when the minister was asked a question about the code, and she said that she did not understand that and that she would get clarification.”

“Then the chairman obliged that the clarification will be brought and the matter was closed.”

“One of the members then, in his summary, insinuated that that was padding, and that was what the press took. So, the minister of humanitarian affairs did not mention or use the word padding.”

“She requested time to correct this mistake that she observed. Secondly, we did not go to the media refuting or challenging, rather we wrote a letter to the ministry of finance, budget and national planning seeking clarification.”

“Therefore, I concur totally that what has been provided in the budget is part of our project. The only mistake was the coding which has been clarified even before this interactive meeting.”

“The Permanent Secretary, who stood in for the minister, distanced her from the budget padding statement.”