Buhari orders finance ministry, FIRS to remit all NASENI funds

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Federal Inland Revenue Service to remit all funds due to the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) as statutorily provided in the constitution to the agency.

This is even as he also directed the agency to fast-track industrial development across the country, setting a target for the manufacturing of made-in-Nigeria helicopters for them. 

The President gave the directives at the opening of the meeting of the governing board of NASENI in Abuja, where he urged board members to work towards repositioning the agency to achieve its mandate.

Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the governing board of NASENI, Buhari said: “In order to realise its full potential, NASENI must be empowered through the provision of adequate financial, human and material resources and be given the autonomy and independence to forge international partnerships to acquire the relevant technologies for socio-economic and industrial advancement of the country. In this regard, I have directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning as well as the Federal Inland Revenue Services to commence remittances of funds approved by law to the agency.”

Vice-Chairman and CEO of NASENI, Prof. Mohammed Haruna, who spoke to State House Correspondents after the meeting, disclosed that the agency had been given the marching order to produce a made-in-Nigeria helicopter. 

He said a lot of progress had been made in developing the helicopter. 

“Every component produced is required to be certified before we can deploy. So, to fast track these important things, that is the beginning. There is a matching order to have a made in Nigeria helicopter.”

He said the board had approved the use of local materials to produce solar cells, saying that the agency already had the capacity to produce 7.5 megawatts of solar panels in its assembly plant in Karshi, Abuja with imported cells.