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Closing foreign missions expensive but cheaper, says Onyeama

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says it is expensive to close a country’s embassy although it will be beneficial in the long run.

Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama. PHOTO: TWITTER/ GEOFFREY ONYEAMA

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says it is expensive to close a country’s embassy although it will be beneficial in the long run.

Onyeama said at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday that the reduction of Nigeria’s foreign missions was on the agenda of the administration.

“The government is following up on that and we have sort of prepared the roadmap; we have started in the implementation of that and made also recommendations in that context.

“Paradoxically, closing missions are extremely expensive.

“At first sight it seems obvious that you close it you are saving cost but you will actually find that the cost of closing is almost prohibitive.

“But in the long run it will be cheaper, but in the immediate and short term it is expensive but we have started the process.”

The country currently has 119 foreign missions.

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0 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    119 useless missions, and on top of it a useless foreign affairs minister. Buhari should wake up and live his promises to the Nigerian electorates, close down half of these missions because they are conduit pipe on the nations resources. To even think that Nigeria has two missions in a place like Italy, it is scandalous.

  • Author’s gravatar

    If it is very known why embassies exist, then the African countries could have been adviced to have not to have more than five. Missions bring nothing to African countries, it brings to it only waste of their resources.