Nigeria has established Cultural Centres in China and Brazil to market the country’s image and make the outside world to appreciate Nigeria and Nigerians better.
This is as the 2019 edition of Abuja Cultural Carnival coordinated by the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism would gulp N82.109 million.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, stated this Wednesday while defending the Ministry’s 2019 budget proposals and the 2018 estimates before the Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism, told the Senators.
Earlier, the Committee headed by Senator Fatimah Raji–Rasaki, had taken the Minister to task on why N82 million proposed for Abuja Cultural Carnival in 2019, did not hold the Carnival last year despite N62 million appropriated for it.
Responding, the Minister said the N62 million appropriated for the carnival last year was not fully cash backed as besides, was lumped with other items on capital component of the budget, which were not adequately funded.
Mohammed said, “Money for cultural carnival of national magnitude ordinarily, should even be more than N82 million but because of the synergy the ministry had with the Federal Capital Territory and other sponsors in terms of accommodation for participants from the various states, feeding, transportation etc, made us to make modest proposal of N82 million.”
He told the committee that Cultural Centers established by the Nigeria government in China and Brazil which had budgetary allocation of N25 million in 2018 and N35 million proposal for 2019, were necessary for positive projection of the country’s image.
The Minister said, “Cultural Centres are meant for foreign image of the country. They promote tourism and even the economy of the owner country. Though not revenue generating centres, but in the long run, add value to the economy and citizens of countries that established them.”
He added that the total budgetary proposals for the two arms of the Ministry ( i.e, Information, Culture and Tourism) in the 2019 fiscal year, was N5.306 billion out which N3.398 billion was for personnel cost, N880.507 million for overhead and N1.3 billion for capital expenditure of both arms .
