Nigeria to save N10b from cut down on COP29 expenses – Presidency

The Presidency on Tuesday outlined a number of measures designed to cut down federal government expenditure for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Conference of Parties (COP29), scheduled to take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in November.

The Presidency said the decision has become inevitable following the outcry over the size of Nigeria’s delegation on official engagements abroad.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, gave the indication when he briefed newsmen at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, revealing that the measure would save the government about N10 billion from the 11-day event.

He said the decision to cut down official expenditure is necessary to avoid the embarrassing situation that occurred at COP28 in Dubai last November.

Among the measures to save funds, he said the government will no longer hire a pavilion, which costs $5,000, while a delegation office will be set up inside the premises.

He added that some of the wasteful platforms that lead to consultancies and subcontracts for lighting and other technology provisions will be abandoned, as they can be provided directly by the National Council on Climate Change.

According to him, the cutdown will be achieved through the provision and implementation of the climate accountability and transparency portal.

He recalled with dismay the criticisms that trailed the size of the delegation to last year’s COP28, and the condemnation that followed, with many describing it as unwieldy.

He said: “Many Nigerians would recall that, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the federal government of Nigeria’s delegation attended COP28 in Dubai, UAE, last year, there was some outcry concerning the size of the delegation.

“There was some deliberate misinformation, but the truth of the matter is we also found that there were government officials who had no business at that meeting, and some with significant delegations.

“And in view of this, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, approved an audit of that exercise to fully understand and ascertain what happened and what must be done to ensure that what happened never repeats itself in this country.

“As a result, within the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, which I lead, and in the Office of the Director General, CEO of the National Council on Climate Change, Dr. Nkiruka Madukwe, an exercise has been concluded detailing exactly what the expenditure profile was for COP28, with a view to ensuring that we implement measures that will lead to the economic empowerment of our people and the economic development of our nation.”

The Presidential spokesman said it is in light of these developments that “the National Council on Climate Change, in collaboration with my office, has established the climate accountability and transparency portal, which will, among other things, ensure that all members of the delegation across ministries, departments, and agencies, including the legislative branch of government, will be captured on a transparent portal.

“This will mean that Nigerians will have full and real-time access to the numbers of those attending and those the government is sponsoring to COP29.

“This will also ensure that anyone attending this conference has an economic imperative to be there, engaging with companies, multilateral partners, and stakeholders who will attract finance and opportunity into the country for the benefit of our people.

“Anyone who is not engaging in activities directly linked to attracting business opportunities or finance into the country will not be part of the federal government’s delegation this time around.

“In addition to the portal, we found through our audit that during COP28 in Dubai, there were significant expenditures for the provision of platforms that proved to be, in our view, wasteful.

“So, ahead of COP29, we have resolved and concluded that there will be no showcase pavilion as part of the federal government of Nigeria’s cost reduction efforts. We recognize that what can be achieved in a showcase pavilion can be achieved in a far more economically efficient mode by effectively utilising the delegation office that is on-site within the conference complex. And this we will do.”

“We have found that by taking that option, the nearly $500,000 showcase pavilion purchased for last year’s COP28 will no longer be an item of expenditure for COP29. In addition, the delegates’ office that we will use to conduct bilateral meetings and other meetings that otherwise would have been conducted in the showcase pavilion will cost less than 10% of the cost of the showcase pavilion.

“This is the change that Nigerians have asked for. This is the change that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is giving to them,” he said.

Continuing, Ngelale said while the administration is poised to ensure that “we are not involved in high-end purchases of pavilion spaces at a time when our people are grappling with economic difficulty, we are also ensuring that some of these wasteful platforms that lead to consultancies and subcontracts for lighting and technological provisions are elements that can be provided directly by the Secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change.

“With all of the savings through the provision and implementation of the climate accountability and transparency portal, as well as our active cutdown of expenditure items found in the COP28 expenditure profile, we have positioned ourselves to save this country over 10 billion naira on this 11-day event in November, COP29.”

He assured that President Tinubu is determined to ensure that Nigerians have confidence “that in all of our activities moving forward, we have conducted comprehensive audits of where we have gone wrong in the past, with a view to resolving them.”