The Budget Office of the Federation has dismissed claims that the North East Development Commission (NEDC) operates a ₦246 billion salaries budget, describing such reports as misleading and inaccurate.
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In a statement signed by Tanimu Yakubu, Director General of the Budget Office, the office clarified that the ₦246.77 billion figure attributed to NEDC is not exclusively for personnel costs.
Instead, it represents a statutory lump-sum allocation in line with Nigeria’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and standard budget preparation practices for statutory bodies.
The Budget Office explained that during budget submission, when agencies do not provide a full internal economic breakdown, allocations may temporarily appear under “Personnel Cost” as a technical placeholder.
This does not reflect actual spending intent and is adjusted once detailed submissions and legislative approvals are completed.
On capital expenditure, the ₦2.70 billion cited by critics relates to a National Assembly-approved rephrasing of capital votes from the 2025 budget, with about 70% carried over to the 2026 fiscal year.
This adjustment, the office said, does not indicate a lack of development projects.
According to official budget schedules, NEDC is actively implementing numerous projects in the North East, including:
Agricultural support and food security initiatives
Orphanage construction and rehabilitation
IDP camp reconstruction
Boreholes and water supply projects
Security logistics
Constituency-level development interventions
The statement emphasized that personnel costs are necessary for institutional capacity, funding engineers, project managers, procurement officers, and monitoring teams essential to project delivery.
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Yakubu urged the public and commentators to engage responsibly with fiscal information, noting that NEDC operates under well-defined accountability frameworks, including annual Appropriation Acts, National Assembly oversight, quarterly performance reports, and statutory audits.
“The claim that NEDC exists merely to pay salaries is unfounded,” Yakubu said, warning that misinterpretation of technical budget presentations undermines informed public discourse.