The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spends N10.3 billion annually on salaries of just 600 workers. This is amounting to N17.1 million per person a year.
The Senate said SEC was incurring deficit every year because it spends more than its revenue on salary and asks SEC Director-General, Lamido Yuguda, to commence necessary measures to reduce the workforce, according to Punch report
The directive was given to Yuguda when he appeared before the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning, at the ongoing stakeholders’ interactive session on the 2021-2023 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
SEC annual revenue breakdown
- 2019 – total revenue was N8.36 billion
- 2020 – projected revenue is N5.47 billion
- 2021 – projected revenue is N8.30 billion
The Chairman of the joint panel, Senator Solomon Adeola, asked the DG to remit at least N300m to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account before Thursday next week.
Senator Gabriel Suswam, queried SEC for projecting a total revenue of N8.3bn in 2021 while its expenditure was put at N14.4bn, which implies a deficit of N6.1 billion would be incurred.
He said, “You said you are top-heavy. Now, there are lots of young men who are on the street who are qualified and ready to work.
“The salary of just one person from the top-heavy management staff that you have can pay five young people who have the qualifications and capacity to do the job. When you generate N8bn and incur a deficit of N6.1bn, it is as good as your organisation does not exist.”
It is deeply concerning that SEC spends N10.30 billion on the wages of 600 people only, in a country where the minimum wage is N30,000 and over 80 million people classified as poor pre-pandemic.
Although the Senate raised a legitimate concern on the amount of money SEC spends on wages and admonished a useful advise, however, the Senate does not have the moral authority to query about extravagant spending.
Recall that in February, the NASS resolved to buy 400 units of exotic Toyota Camry 2020 model cars, which was reported to cost N35 million each, in a country where the official unemployment rate is 27.1%.
In the revised 2020 budget, which has been signed into law by President Buhari, National Assembly allocation was retained at N128 billion, which is the same as the original 2020 budget passed in December 2019, despite budget cuts in other sectors, with N27 billion budgeted for renovation of National Assembly Complex.
The President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan in June 2020, listed the approval of $28 billion (N10.08 trillion) external debt for Federal Government as one of the achievements of the senate in the past 1 year.
Senator Ndume in June said that the current situation is not sustainable. and called for reduced cost of governance.
It would be a turn around in Nigeria in the right direction, if the Senate and other elected officials, would start leading by example and reducing the cost of governance in the country.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
