Humanitarian Minister Explains Why His Ministry Wants To Spend Over N300m On Furniture

Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, has justified his ministry’s plan to spend over N300m on furniture.

Yilwatda defended his ministry’s 2025 budget proposal during an interview on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Wednesday, January 15, 2025.

When asked why his ministry planned to spend over N300m on furniture considering the state of the country, the minister explained that new agencies created to operate under his ministry need furniture to function.

He said the agencies do not have accommodation nor furniture, adding that the figures for furniture in his ministry’s 2025 budget are meant to refurnish his office, which he according to him, has been moved to the Ministry of Communications and equip the offices of the new agencies.

He said, “We have new agencies that are coming up that have no accommodation before like NSIPA and some of the agencies that we have. They don’t have offices before. So we are moving them to a new location as we are asking for new offices to be given to them. Even my ministry has been moved from where it is now, it has been relocated to the Ministry of Communications, we are moving to another floor different from the one allocated to us.

“They’ve allocated a new set of offices to the ministry, so, we are refurnishing those new offices, and then NSIPA, which is a new agency under us, we are also going to furnish those places. That’s the reason why we have to bring some figures for furniture.”

He, however, maintained that over 99% of his ministry’s budget would directly go to the people.

Yilwatda explained that the budget has over N500b for major projects like school feeding programmes, cash transfers and grants for vulnerable people.

President Bola Tinubu appointed Prof. Yilwatda as Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in October 2024, following Beta Edu’s suspension over financial misappropriation allegations.