By Udora Orizu
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, has disclosed that Nigeria received $26.942 billion development assistance funds from international donors between 2015 and 2020.
Agba made the disclosure in Abuja yesterday while briefing House of Representatives Committee on Civil Society and Development Partners on Donor Funds Receipts, Transfers and Disbursement to Government Agencies, Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organisations in Nigeria.
The amount comprises $2.339 billion received in 2015; $1.150 billion gotten in 2016; $774.933 million collected in 2017; $22.016 billion gotten in 2018; $655.642 million received in 2019, and $5.639 million received in 2020.
The minister explained that these donations came from the European Development Fund (EDF) and United Nations Development Systems (UNDS), China, through the bilateral agreement between the Nigerian Government and China signed since 1972; Japan Activities in Nigeria via the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA); Department for International Development DFID; United States Agency for international Development (USAID) and the German International Cooperation (GIZ).
Agba, who said his ministry does not receive donor funds, hence cannot transfer or disburse what is not received, also said Nigeria does not currently qualify for budget support because it is not classified as very poor but as a lower middle income country that is only qualified for projects/programmes support.
According to him, “The implication of this is that donors do not give us the funds for management, rather they work with the sectoral stakeholders to fund the project directly after identifying the needs by the MDAs/states in line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. For the purpose of clarification, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning is responsible for coordinating Nigeria’s multilateral and bilateral economic cooperation, including development Aid and Technical Assistance Programmes by signing of Cooperation Agreements (after obtaining Power of Attorney from Ministry of Foreign Affairs), facilitating the implementation of programmes and projects as well as monitoring and evaluating.
“In carrying out these functions, the role of the ministry is to coordinate the bilateral and multilateral institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) as well as civil society organisations (CSOs).
“Interventions in these identified areas are done directly in collaboration with the relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) as well as states and local government areas through their implementing agencies. In view of the above, procurement is carried out directly by the donors. In order to have a bird’s eye view of the grants/aid given by donors, the ministry maintains a Development Assistance Database (DAD). The DAD is a web-based dashboard that tracks spending by the International Development Partners, INGOs among others. Donors are expected to upload spending across sectors to the DAB.”
