AS ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government begin the execution of government programmes for the 2023 financial year, The ICIR looks into what some government institutions budgeted for newspapers, magazines and periodicals within the year.
The institutions are the Presidency, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) and 12 key government ministries.
While the budgets for newspapers, magazines and periodicals run into several millions of naira in the selected ministries and other government institutions, some newspapers are sold between N200 and N300 in the country, but periodicals sell much higher.
The ICIR’s calculation shows that a budget of N1 million will purchase 4,000 copies of newspapers, meaning that a ministry that has a million naira budget for newspapers will have about 11 copies of the products every day of the year.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the N21.8 trillion 2023 budget into law on Tuesday, January 3.
A breakdown of the budget shows the allocation of N967.5 billion for statutory transfers, N6.6 trillion for debt servicing, N8.3 trillion for recurrent expenditure, and N5.9 trillion for capital expenditure.
What the Presidency will spend on newspapers, magazines and periodicals this year
The Presidency will spend N26 million (N26,432,346) from its budget of N148 billion (N148,168,464,339) on newspapers and N3.5 million (N3,511,909) to buy magazines and periodicals.
OSGF
Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has the approval to buy newspapers, magazines and periodicals worth N13.6 million (N13,650,000) and N11.2 million (N11,200,000), respectively, from its budget of N108.8 billion (N108,897,086,035).
OHCSF
The Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has a budget of N12 billion (12,096,559,260). It will purchase N1.5 million (N1,531,472) worth of newspapers and N13.4 million (N13,488,920) worth of magazines and periodicals.
Federal Ministry of Health
The health ministry has an approved budget of N1.075 trillion (N1,075,795,183,695. It plans to spend N2.9 million (N2,949,400) on magazines and periodicals.
Federal Ministry of Education
The ministry enjoys a budget of N1.06 trillion (N1,076,219,559,121). It will spend N7.8 million (N7,800,000) on newspapers and N8.2 million (N8,200,000) on periodicals from the fund.
Ministry of Aviation
The total budget for the ministry is N77.3 billion (N77,334,237,120).
It will purchase N3 million worth of magazines and N1 million worth of newspapers.
Federal Ministry of Finance and National Planning
From a total budget of N10.1 trillion (N10,126,444,028,859), the ministry intends to buy newspapers worth N14.2 million (N14,294,392) and magazines worth N9 million (N9,008,219).
Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment
The ministry has N48.4 billion (N48,862,789,248) to spend in the year, out of which the government earmarked N3.4 million (N3,409,043) for it to buy newspapers and N532,132 for magazines and periodicals.
Federal Ministry of Interior
Out of an approved budget of N15.1 billion (N15,744,778,061), the ministry will expend N3.5 million (N3,585,000) on newspapers and N626,200 on periodicals.
Federal Ministry of Justice
The ministry will spend N3.8 million (N3,825,000) of its N72.4 billion (N72,479,567,575) budget on newspapers. It has no budget for magazines.
Ministry of Labour and Employment
In 2023, the ministry plans to spend N8.9 million (N8,925,256) and N1.7 million (N1,785,464) of its N52.7 billion (N52,707,653,639) on newspapers and magazines and periodicals, respectively.
Federal Ministry of Works and Housing
The ministry has a budget of N534.4 billion (N534,455,695,989), from which it will spend N8.5 million (N8,579,623) on newspapers and N5.6 million (N5,651,948) on magazines and periodicals.
Federal Ministry of Power
From an approved budget of N258.4 billion (N258,494,986,301), the ministry wishes to purchase newspapers, magazines and periodicals for N1 million each.
Ministry of Defence
The ministry has a budget of N1.3 trillion (1,383,921,175,708) and a budget to purchase magazines and periodicals worth six million Naira.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The budget for the ministry is N98.1 billion (N98,114,501,448). It has set aside N7,336,858 to buy magazines and periodicals.
Meanwhile, The ICIR reports that the Federal Government often does not release all approved budgets to its MDAs. This consequently denies the MDAs the needed funds to meet their budgetary provisions.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org