The Federal Competition and Protection Commission (FCCPC) said despite zero budgetary allocation, it has generated a total of N56 billion this year.
Out of the sum, the agency remitted about N22.4 billion to the federal government, saying the value demonstrated the possibility of accountability and transparency in government business.
It said about 90 per cent of the sum came from sanctions and penalties against companies and organisations that flout its Act.
Recall that the objectives of the Act are to promote and maintain competitive markets, protect and promote the interest and welfare of consumers and prohibit restrictive or unfair business practices that prevent, restrict or distort competition among others.
The FCCPC Executive Chairman, Babatunde Irukera, gave the details, yesterday, at a strategic media engagement held in Abuja.
“I am glad that there are no cases in court today proving that FCCPC is oppressive… We are also proud to say that in 2021, N1.8 billion was budgeted for the agency but the government only released N1.2 billion while we recorded a N4 billion in internally generated revenues (IGR). In 2022, we were given a budget of N1.3 billion while N633 million went into salaries and overheads,” he said.
OBSERVERSTIMES recall that ,
In 2018, the agency had a huge jump in the budget from the treasury and it got a budget of N3.3 billion and that is largest, of which N2.1 billion was released.
“By 2019, the budget of the agency went back from N3.3bn down to N1.3 billion. Out of that, 518 million was personnel cost. In that year, when we started the reforms, the agency made a total Internally generated revenue of N377 million, which was unprecedented as the highest at the time. But we were growing the agency as best as we could.”
“In 2020 the government budgeted deeper to N887 million of which N582 million was for salaries and personnel cost. The agency was able to make approximately what the government gave by itself and the agency revenue that year was N864 million.
“By 2021, the government approved a budget of N1.8 billion for the agency but the agency generated by itself N4 billion and gave to the government N1.6 billion” he stated.
The Executive Vice Chairman further explained that “in 2022, the government budgeted N1.3 billion for the agency and N633 million was personal cost but the agency didn›t touch a single kobo of the operational and capital expense. The only thing the government paid that year was salaries. In that year, the agency made N5.2 billion and remitted to the government N2.6 billion.
“By this time, we had indicated to go out of the budget because we could take care of ourselves, we went to the government and got approval to leave the treasury and so in December 2022, the government said starting from January 2023, we would be taken off the budget.
“2023 is our first year of being on our own and now our personnel cost has hovered from N633 million to about N2.5 billion. Essentially, our personnel cost went up times four. We didn›t increase number of staff but salaries was improved” he stated.
The Vice Chairman took over the leadership of the agency six years ago when the Commission was known Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and has turned the fortunes of the Organization to a self fund Agency.
