By Halimah Olamide
Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Anite, has denied planning to spend a sum of N1bn on trips to Geneva, Switzerland .
Explaining in a statement by the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Toluwalase Moyan, on Wednesday, the minister said such reports were extreme misrepresentation of the facts.
“We wish to categorically state that there is no line item in the proposed budget of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment referring to any foreign trip to Geneva.
“Rather, the only mention of Geneva in the proposed budget is with respect to the maintenance of the Nigerian Trade Office in Geneva, captured as ‘External Trade Sector, Geneva (WTO)’, which may have been misconstrued as ‘Foreign trip to Geneva’.
According to the statement, “The current debt owed by the Nigeria Trade Office in Geneva as captured in the budget is N499m, and it was deemed necessary to propose a budget that will service Nigeria’s outstanding debts in Geneva and maintain Nigeria’s respect and global standing amongst the comity of nations.”
The minister stated that the total amount (for Nigeria’s Trade Office in Geneva) in the appropriation for 2024 was N1.61bn, with the breakdown consisting of personnel cost, N805, 379, 820; overhead, N204.06m; and capital, N600m.
“For clarification, Nigeria, as an active player in global trade maintains an office in Geneva responsible for representing and defending Nigeria’s multilateral trade interests in the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, both headquartered in Geneva Switzerland.