THE Presidency has said that it has outlined measures to cut down expenditure in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Conference of Parties (COP29), taking place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan November, in line with President Bola Tinubu's promise to cutdown cost of governance.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Chief Ajuri explained that the measure would save the government about N10 billion from the 11-day event.
He said the cutting down of the official expenditure is necessary to avoid the embarrassment of COP28 which took place in Dubai last November.
Among the measures to save funds is that government will no longer hire a pavilion which costs $500,000 while a delegation office will be set up inside the premises.
He added that some of the wasteful platforms that give rise to consultancies and subcontracts for lighting and other technology provisions will not be used as they can be provided directly by the National Council on Climate Change.
According to him, the cut down will be achieved through the provision and implementation of the climate accountability and transparency portal.
The Presidential Envoy said, "Many Nigerians would recall that as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Dederal Government of Nigeria's delegation to COP 28 in Dubai, UAE, last year, there were some elements of outcry concerning the size of the delegation.
"There was 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.
"And as a result of that, within the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, which I lead, and in the Office of the Director General, CEO of the National Council on Climate Change in the person of Dr Nkeiruka Madukwe an exercise has been concluded detailing exactly what the expenditure profile was of COP 28 with a view to ensuring that we implement measures that would ensure that whatever is spent ahead of COP 29 has a function that will lead to the economic empowerment of our people and the economic development of our nation.
"And it is in view of that, that I'm here to inform the Nigerian people that the National Council on Climate Change, in collaboration with my office, has established the climate accountability and transparency portal, which will, among other things, ensure that all members of delegation across ministries, departments and agencies and including even the legislative branch of government, will be captured on a transparent portal.
"This will mean that Nigerians will have full and real time access into the numbers of who is attending and those who government is sponsoring to COP 29. This will also ensure that anyone who is attending this conference has an economic imperative to be at that conference, engaging with companies, multilateral partners and stakeholders who will attract finance and opportunity into the country for the benefit of our people.
"Anyone who is not engaging in activities that are directly linked to the attraction of business opportunity of finance into the country will not be part of the federal government's delegation this time around."
He further said, "In addition to the portal, we found through our audit that during Cop 28 in Dubai, there were significant expenditures made for the provision of platforms that proved to be, in our view, wasteful.
"So ahead of COP 29, we have resolved and concluded that there will be no showcase pavilion as part of the federal government of Nigeria's cost reduction efforts. We recognize that what can be achieved in a showcase pavilion can be achieved in a far more economically efficient mode by effectively utilizing the delegation office that is on site within the conference complex.
"And this we will do, we have found that by taking that option, the nearly $500,000 showcase pavilion that was purchased for last year's COP 28 will no longer be an item of expenditure in COP 29 in addition, the delegates office that we will be using to conduct bilateral meetings and other meetings that otherwise would have been conducted in the showcase pavilion, we will be conducting in a delegates office that will cost less than 10% of the cost of the showcase pavilion.
"This is the change that Nigerians have asked for. This is the change that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is giving to them."
He said that while his office ensures that the country did not get involved in high end purchases of pavilion spaces at a time when the people are grappling with economic difficulty, "we are also ensuring that some of these wasteful platforms that give rise to consultancies and subcontracts for lighting for technological provision, that these are elements that can be provided directly from the Secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change, with all of the savings through the provision and implementation of the climate accountability and transparency portal, as well as our active cut down of expenditure items that were found in the COO 28 expenditure profile.
""We have put ourselves in a position to save this country over 10 billion naira on this 11 day event in November, COP 29. So, the President will continue to ensure that Nigerians have confidence that in all of our activities moving forward, we have conducted comprehensive audits of where we have gone wrong in the past, with a view to resolving them COP 29 is just the beginning."
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