In a heated session, the Senate Committee on Trade, Industry, and Investment scrutinized Minister Doris Nkiruka-Anite Uzoka over a proposed N1 billion budget for a Geneva trip during the defense of the 2024 Budget.
This scrutiny happened during the defense of the 2024 Budget, in which the Senate Committee on Trade, Industry, and Investment raised serious objections to the Ministry’s proposed allocation of a staggering N1 billion for a Geneva trip.
At the meeting, former Edo State Governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole criticized the allocation as excessive, urging the minister to leverage in-house expertise to cut costs.
Oshiomhole stated, “I see that you intend to travel to Geneva next year, and you have budgeted over one billion Naira for that. We can’t keep going on with over-bloated teams on abroad trips. Use the experts we have in your offices in that country to save cost.”
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Oshiomhole also accused the minister of neglecting her duties in favor of constant presence at the Bank of Industry.
“Madam, sit in your office and work for Nigerians. I have gone there twice. You are always in the BOI. If you preferred BOI, you should have declined the President’s nomination to be minister,” he disclosed.
Despite the minister’s presentation of the ministry’s commitment to economic growth, job creation, and ongoing programs for industrialization and investment, Oshiomhole’s insistence on the absence of concrete trade balance data raised questions about the ministry’s data management, with claims that such data exists within other government agencies.