Wike, Keyamo, other ministers to get millions for housing, furniture

Deapite widespread hunger in the country, President Bola Tinubu’s administration is set to spend millions on housing, furniture and other utilities for the newly appointed ministers.

TrackNews Media reports that the new ministers’ allowances are based on data collated from a document obtained from the website of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.

The housing allowances for the newly appointed ministers may cost Nigeria about N343.25 million annually.

With that annual allocation, in four years, the federal government is expected to spend N1.37bn on the 45 minister-designate’s accommodation.

It covers allowances for accommodation (200 per cent of basic salary), domestic staff (75 per cent of basic salary), utilities (30 per cent of basic salary), and furniture (300 per cent of basic salary).

Unlike other allowances paid monthly, furniture allowance is usually paid once in four years.

Each minister is entitled to an accommodation allowance of N4.05m, a domestic staff allowance of N1.52m, and a utility allowance of N0.61, alongside a furniture allowance of N6.08m, which is paid once in four years.

Each minister of state is entitled to an accommodation allowance of N3.92m, domestic staff allowance of N1.47m, and utility allowance of N0.59, alongside furniture allowance of N5.87m, which is paid once in four years.

Breaking down the figures, each minister is expected to be paid a total of N7.7m annually while each minister of state is expected to get a total of N7.45m annually.

In four years, each minister gets N30.8m while each minister of state gets N29.8m.

In total, the 32 ministers will cost the country about N985.6m while the 13 ministers of state will gulp about N387.4m in four years.

This further means that the 45 ministers would cost the country a total of N1.37bn in four years.