In an interview on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, defended his ministry’s plan to spend over N300 million on furniture.
When asked why his ministry planned to spend over N300 million on furniture given the state of the nation, the minister responded that new agencies established to operate under his ministry require furniture in order to function.
In addition to stating that the agencies need space and furnishings, he added that the funds allocated for furniture in his ministry’s 2025 budget are intended to furnish his office, which he claims has been relocated to the Ministry of Communication building, and outfit the offices of the new agency.
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.”
However, he insisted that the people would receive more than 99 percent of his ministry’s budget.
Yilwatda clarified that the budget includes more than N500 billion for significant initiatives like grants for the underprivileged, cash transfers, and school food programs.
After Beta Edu was suspended due to accusations of financial fraud, President Bola Tinubu named Prof. Yilwatda Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development in October 2024.