The Federal Government (FG) says it plans to cut costs for the upcoming 29TH Edition of the Conference of Parties (COP29) climate conference scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11TH to 22ND, 2024. This was made known to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja by the Special adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, stating that the measure would save the government about N10 billion.
He said, “Many Nigerians would recall that as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Federal Government of Nigeria’s delegation to COP28 in Dubai, UAE, last year, there were some elements of outcry concerning the size of the delegation.
“There was some deliberate misinformation, but the truth of the matter is, we also found that there were government officials who had no business at that meeting, and some with significant delegations.
“And in view of this, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, had approved an audit to be undertaken of that exercise to fully understand and ascertain what happened and what must be done to ensure that what happened never repeats itself in this country.”
According to him, part of cost-cutting measures includes no hiring of a pavilion which costs $500,000, a reduction in consultancy and subcontracting fees and the establishment of a climate accountability and transparency portal.
He said, “In addition to the portal, we found through our audit that during COP28 in Dubai, there were significant expenditures made for the provision of platforms that proved to be, in our view, wasteful.
“Elimination of showcase pavilion—the government will not purchase a showcase pavilion, which cost nearly $500,000 at COP28. Instead, they will utilize a delegate office within the conference complex, expected to cost less than 10 percent of the pavilion price.
“Reduction in consultancy and subcontracting fees—services such as lighting and technology provision will be handled directly by the secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change, eliminating costly third-party contracts.
“As well as our active cutdown of expenditure items that were found in the COP 28 expenditure profile. We have put ourselves in a position to save this country over N10 billion on this 11-day event in November.”