The National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), an agency of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, was awarded a total sum of N100 million in the 2024 budget to construct a golf course road.
This is according to a post entitled “The budget is a mess” by BudgIT, a civic-tech organization, on Monday.
The non-governmental group said the construction of roads is not under the purview of the NCRI, deeming the act as “misappropriation of public funds”.
“The National Cereals Research Institute, meant to focus on the genetic improvement of rice, sugarcane, and soybeans, has an allocation of N100 million to construct a golf course road.
“This is not their mandate and a clear misappropriation of public funds,” BudgIT said.
It noted that such “wasteful spending” which has left the country’s growth snail-like must stop in the 2025 Budget.
BusinessDay’s findings show that the research institute with the motto “today’s research is tomorrow’s wealth” located in Baddegi, Niger State is being supervised by the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), through which it is funded and coordinated respectively.
The agency, according to a brief on its website, is charged with a national mandate for the genetic improvement of rice, sugarcane, soybean, etc. throughout the country as well as farming systems research and extension.
A further probe into the agency’s website revealed that it has capital projects worth N7 billion in the 2024 budget. One of the projects is N1.5 billion for road construction in three communities in the southwest.
Though the agricultural institute has been in existence since 1975, there is hardly any research paperwork on its website.
