N532.5bn will not be enough to end poverty in Nigeria — Beta Edu.

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The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu, has said the N532.5 billion allocated to her ministry in the 2024 budget will not be enough to fight poverty in the country.

Edu said this on Tuesday, December 12, when she appeared before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to defend her 2024 budget.

According to the minister, her ministry was given an overhead ceiling of N532.5bn which represents a 28 per cent increase over the 2023 budget to cushion the effects of inflation.

“Conversely, the capital budget ceiling was reduced from N3.7bn in 2022 to N1.328316bn in 2023 and it represents a 71 per cent reduction. So, in 2022 and 2023, there was a 71 per cent reduction.

However the pittance capital ceiling of N1.535b which is an increase from the current year’s budget does not in any way match with the mandate of the ministry’s headquarters to shrink poverty in Nigeria.