The Federal Government has allocated N6.7billion to the Sports sector for the 2015 fiscal year.
This information was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday during the budget defence for 2015 at the Senate Sports Committee.
NAN reports that this followed a downward review of N11billion proposal for the sports sector. It showed that the NSC got a separate allocation of N4.94billion.
Sen. Adamu Gumba, Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, urged the NSC and its affiliates, to work according to the envelope given to them by the Federal Government.
“For 2015, you have received a new envelop and we want you to go back and rework your budget according to this allocation and submit it to us tomorrow’’, Gumba said.
He noted that the downward review of the 2015 budget was due to the fall of crude oil at the international market which had affected the country.
Minister of Sports, Tammy Danagogo, who gave an account of their 2014 stewardship, told the committee that the budget performance for 2014 stood at 79 per cent.
Gbenga Elegbeleye, the Director-General of the NSC who accompanied Danagogo to the budget defence, said the performance excluded the last quarter of 2014, as there were no allocation for the NSC during the period.
He said about N400 million was not released to the NSC by the budget office in 2014 for sporting activities.
Elegbeleye also noted that out of the N1.5billion approved for capital expenditure in 2014, only N659 million, representing 57 per cent, was released.
“We are carrying over our debt to the 2015 budget under recurrent expenditure because we owe a lot of companies.
“There was no money to pay for contracts awarded; at times, we ask for tickets from travelling agents in advance and we have to pay later.
“Most times, we owe the service providers hoping that we pay them when we have enough funds.
“So, that is why we have to carry it over to 2015,’’ Elegbeleye said.
Amaju Pinnick, Chairman of the NFA, said the football house would seek more funds from the corporate world to fund its activities.
