Nigeria will pull out of 90 international organisations, pruning the number of such bodies it belongs to from 310 to 220.
This was disclosed to state house correspondents by Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting on Wednesday.
Adeosun said Nigeria pays about N70 million annually on membership subscriptions and currently owes about N120 million in the various organisations it belongs to, most of which are not necessary.
She said a committee has been set up to fine-tune the arrangements and submit a report within two weeks.
“Basically Nigeria is a member of 310 international organizations and a committee was set up to review the rationale of our continued membership of such large number of organizations, particularly in the light of the fact that in many cases we are not actually paying our financial obligations and subscriptions which is causing some embarrassment to Nigeria and our image abroad,” Adeosun said.
“In particular, it was discussed that there are some commitments made to international organizations by former presidents which were not cash backed.
“So when our delegations turn up at those organizations we become very embarrassed. So that was what drove the committee.”
“The committee made some recommendations, that out of the 310 organizations, 220 organizations should be retained and the rest we should withdraw membership from.
“But council directed that more work needed to be done, particularly there was a dispute as to the (exact) figure of how much is owed.
“The committee had a figure of about $120 million but we heard from Ministry of Finance and other ministries that is far more than that. Our subscriptions are in arrears in several major organizations.”