The Federal Government said it will review the number of Nigeria’s foreign missions in its portfolio amid reports that some of them are battling with indebtedness.
This was disclosed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha on Tuesday when he inaugurated a 13-member Presidential Committee to review the number and strategy for resourcing Nigerian foreign missions on Tuesday.
Nigeria currently has 119 diplomatic missions around the world.
What the FG said:
SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha noted that the launch of the committee will enable President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the root cause of the critical challenges facing Nigerian embassies abroad.
- “As we are all aware, our diplomatic missions around the world are currently faced with multifaceted challenges following, among others, the scale of perennial indebtedness they find themselves.
- “This poses attendant damage to our nation’s integrity.  Consequent upon these, Mr. President approved the constitution of this Presidential Committee.
- “Let me recall at this point, some cost-saving measures taken by previous administrations in this regard including; reducing the number and size of missions, authorising concurrent accreditation to other countries, and enhancing and prioritizing budgetary releases to Missions.”
He added that the challenges faced by the missions will have to be addressed holistically on a short-medium-and long-term basis, citing that preliminary findings revealed that the root causes of the challenges were inter-woven and systemic in nature.
The Committee has been given three  months and its terms of reference are to determine the current number, and categories of Nigeria’s diplomatic missions, and subject matter desks worldwide. The committee will also categorise their strategic importance and impact worldwide and make appropriate recommendations.
- The SGF added that the FG will “review the understanding and application of critical extant policies, guidelines, circulars, codes, regulations, financial management systems, statutes, across Nigeria’s missions. “
The Committee is expected to identify challenges, make appropriate recommendations on sustainable steps to be taken as well as identify reasons why previous measures by the previous government were not effective, in a bid to reduce bottlenecks, and curb infractions.
