The Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation on Tuesday lauded the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) for consistent revenue remittances to the Federation Account.
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Suleiman Adokwe, gave the commendation during the 2019 budget defence of the agency in Abuja.
Adokwa said NAN was the only agency in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture that had been remitting the mandatory 25 per cent of internally generated revenue since 2017.
This came after the Managing Director of NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga, presented report of the agency’s budget performance in the 2018 fiscal year.
According to him, the media organisation remitted N32 million representing 25 per cent of the N134 million generated by it in 2018.
In 2017, he said the agency generated N121 million out of a revenue target of N132 million (representing 91.6 per cent revenue performance) and remitted N30 million.
For 2019, NAN has set a revenue target of N193 million, according to the managing director, who said measures had been put in place to actualise the goal.
Meanwhile, the agency has recorded an overall performance of 74 per cent in its N1.49 billion budget for 2018, according to the MD’s presentation.
A breakdown of the figure shows that out of N180 million appropriated to NAN for capital projects, it has spent N90 million representing 50 per cent.
For overhead, the agency has got N96 million or 58 per cent of the N165 million appropriated to it in the year under review.
NAN has so far spent N1.35 billion for personnel in 2018, representing 104 per cent of the N1.25 billion approved for it under the expenditure item.
When asked why the personnel budget was overshot, the MD said it was due to a shortfall in personnel cost.
“The shortfall was because the Budget Office asked us to keep the 2017 personnel budget for 2018.
“But we had promotions and some other engagements that were not factored into the 2018 budget, so that that overshot the release by N100 million,” he said.
When asked again whether the law was followed in the “over-spending”, Onanuga said it was approved by the Budget Office.
Meanwhile, NAN has proposed to spend N1.8 billion for the 2019 fiscal year, according to the MD.
This comprises of N1.44 billion for personnel cost, N215 million for overhead and N152 million for capital projects.
Speaking with newsmen later, Onanuga said the agency hopes to meet the N193 million IGR target from its multimedia platform, expansion in its SMS news alert service, among others.