N6.7bn has been allocated to the sports sector for the 2015 fiscal year by the Federal Government.
This is on the back of a downwards review of N11bn proposal, while the National Sports Commission (NSC) received a separate allocation of N4.94bn.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Sen. Adamu Gumba, during the budget defence for 2015 in Abuja on Friday, urged the NSC and its affiliates to “rework” their budget “according to this allocation and submit it to us tomorrow”.
Minister Tammy Danagogo gave an account of the implementation of the 2014 budget, and rated its performance level at 79 per cent.
Director General of the NSC Gbenga Elegbeleye added that the performance does not include the last quarter of 2014, as there was no allocation for the NSC during that period. He said about N400m was not released to the NSC by the budget office in 2014 for sporting activities.
Elegbeleye also noted that out of the N1.5bn approved for capital expenditure in 2014, only N659m, 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,” Elegbeleye said.
“There was no money to pay for contracts awarded; at times, we ask for tickets from traveling agents in advance and we have to play 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″.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) plans to appeal to corporate bodies in a bid reimburse its own share of the allocation.
