A member of the House of Representatives Honourable Gudaji Kazure has faulted the N1.3 trillion budget of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for the 2020 fiscal year, describing it as outrageous and wasteful.
Kazaure also urged the House leadership to prevail on the Appropriation Committee to cut down the Bank’s budget and channel same to other critical areas, such as Health, Education and Social intervention programmes of government.
The lawmaker also lambasted the apex bank for disregarding a resolution of the House directing it to halt the implementation of the money deposit and withdrawal charges by banks, after the House advised that the policy be suspended.
Kazaure at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday vowed to personally rally colleagues to support a motion he will move asking that the Bank’s budget by cutting down to at most, N300 billion.
He urged the media to watch out for the motion on the floor of the House next week, wherein he will call for a budget cut in CBN, wondering why, “in 2019, the budget of the CBN was N420 billion, but the same CBN brought a budget of N1.3 trillion for 2020. What are they producing? Which revenue are they generating?”
According to him, the CBN should be okay with N300 billion, while the balance of one trillion naira is distributed to health, education and the federal government’s N-Power social intervention programme.
“I am pleading with Mr President (Muhammadu Buhari) to ensure that resources are put into places where they will benefit our people”, he said, adding the bank charges are discouraging local people from lodging money even at their risk losing same to robbery.
Meanwhile, the Jigawa State-born lawmaker has appealed to the federal government to consider reopening land borders with neighbouring countries, even if temporarily.
According to him, the appeal became necessary in view of the challenges being faced by businessmen who were caught unaware with the sudden closure, while their goods were already on the way.
“Some of the consignments I have seen deal with time, because they are perishable, and the goods I saw are not contrabands. Some of the businessmen collect loans from the bank,” he said.
Rep. Gudaji Kazaure, a member representing has blasted the Central Bank of Nigeria for presenting an over-bloated 2020 budget of N1.3 trillion to the national assembly.
The Lawmaker questioned the rationale behind the figure querying “what is the CBN producing to warrant such huge budget for 2020 appropriation year, why must the CBN ask for over 70% of funds appropriated overall for capital project in the 2020 budget.
Gudaji said instead of that bogus some for the CBN, the federal government should instead appropriate more funds for critical sectors like health, education and the N-power project which according to him will impact more positively on the citizens.
The Lawmaker also used the opportunity to blast the CBN for disregarding the national assembly resolution concerning the suspension of the CBN directive to stop the implementation of charges on all cash deposit above N500,000 by all commercial banks.
The Lawmaker said these activities by the CBN amounts to disrespect for the institutions of the national assembly an important arm of government that makes laws for the country.
He says the action is totally against the spirit of good working relationship between the Executive and the Legislature which the 9th Assembly is trying to uphold.
The Lawmaker was also quick to point out that he personally does not have anything against the Central Bank or it’s Governor Godwin Emefiele but rather that he is fighting for the interest of the masses who have elected them to serve them.
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