FG to Save N4.14bn Yearly on Travels with Efficiency Unit

Through the establishment and implementation measures by the Efficiency Unit (E-Unit) of the Ministry of Finance, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has said the federal government would save N4.14 billion on travel expenses yearly.

This was made known at a media roundtable held in Lagos on Wednesday.

She said the unit was established on November 30th 2015, with the aim was of reducing cost, duplication and also create savings for the federal government.

Adeosun who was represented by the Head of Efficiency Unit, Ministry of Finance Ms.Patience Oniha said: “For instance, with travels in 2012, 2013 and 2014 each of those years the average we spent on travels was an average of N83 billion. So if we are able to get a five per cent discount from the airlines it means we could save about N4.14 billion annually just from tickets. And we have already started talking with some of the airlines and we are moving forward. We are in the stage of implementation.”

She said the mandate of efficiency unit was on overhead expenditure with two broad parts: to eliminate waste and duplication in government processes and to generate savings for government from the procurement processes by getting bulk discounts due to its large purchases in its various MDAs.

She added: “In total, the budget should support growth and should reflect the government’s priority in terms of which sectors and what areas we want to improve on. And when we looked at those figures for overhead expenses of 2012 to 2014, the first revelation was that there was a concentration on specific on international and local travel, welfare, office stationary you would ask are these the drivers of economic growth. And we spent in each of those years, 60percent of our overhead expenses on those items.”