N4.9bn expenditure on military uniforms, others uneconomical – Reps
The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, condemned the Federal Government’s policy of importing military uniforms and other auxiliary kits from abroad, declaring that expending a whooping N4.9 biilion on such items between 2015 and 2016 was uneconomical.
Adopting a motion sponsored by Mr. Prestige Ossy (APGA/Aba) yesterday at plenary, the House said the other military kits imported by Nigeria for which the nation spends its scarce foreign earnings, include foot wares, berets, belts, vests, cardigans, head warmers and branded stockings.
Moving the motion, Prestige lamented that the over-dependence on foreign markets for the procurement of almost everything used in Nigeria is alarming, adding that the N4.3 billion spent on military apparel in 2016 when converted to dollars at the current rate of N305 per dollar amounts to $14.1 million while the N1.6 billion earmarked in the 2015 budget at the benchmark rate of N197 per dollar amounted to $8.1 million.
The Abia state lawmaker said that if the trend of patronising foreign markets and trading in foreign currency continues, there was no way the government policy of foreign currency conservation can be achieved.
According to him, the imported military uniforms and other apparels can be produced indigenously and procured from indigenous markets at a far more reduced price and maintained that it behooves on the government to put in place palliative measures such as grants and loans to ensure that indigenous textiles factories are empowered to meet local demands.
In a related development, the House also on Tuesday passed a resolution to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the activities of public financial institutions in
the light of the current economic recession facing the country with a view to blocking all loopholes in the affected agencies.
This resolution was sequel to the adoption of a motion moved by Mr. Chukwuemeka Ujam representing Nkanu East/West Federal Constituency of Enugu State on the floor of the House.
Ujam in his motion said that the Federal Government in its strategic objectives of engendering rapid industrial development established a number of Development Finance Institutions (FDIs) with the primary mandate of providing long term financing to the industrial and productive sectors of the economy.
He mentioned these FDIs to include the Bank of Industry, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) amongst others that were conceptualized to finance small and medium scale industries.
He expressed concerns that despite of the huge budgetary provisions being made for these FDIs over the years, their impact in stimulating economic renaissance is yet to be felt because they have been unable to fulfil their statutory mandates.
He asked the House to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the activities of these FDIs with a view to ascertaining the remeote and immediate causes of their seeming inability to fulfil their statutory mandates.
