The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has described as untrue a media report that it incurred a deficit in its 2021 Budget.
The Commission stated this in reaction to an online publication to the effect that it incurred a deficit of N17 billion and expended N35.2 billion on personnel and consultancy fees.
The telecoms regulatory agency, in a press release by its Director of Public Affairs, Rueben Muoka, declared that the said online publication was far from the truth.
The online publication was headlined: “NCC Incurs a Deficit of N17bn, Spending N35.2bn on Personnel, Consultancy Fees”.
The Commission expressed concerned that whoever was behind the publication was not able to accurately interpret the contents of its 2021 Annual Reports which have been made public.
It stated that the publication created a wrong impression that the Commission incurred the N17 billion deficit because of expenditures on personnel and consultancy fees.
“The attention of the NCC has been drawn to an online publication with a headline titled: “NCC Incurs a Deficit of N17bn, Spending N35.2bn on Personnel, Consultancy Fees”.
“The Commission is concerned with the inability of the online publication to accurately interpret the contents of its 2021 Annual Reports which have been made public.
“As a result, the publication gave a wrong impression that the Commission incurred a N17bn deficit because of expenditures on personnel and consultancy fees. This is far from the truth,” Muoka stated in the release.
He further clarified that the Statement of the Financial Performance of the Commission for the period ended December 2021, clearly indicated that the sum of N17.3bn was a “Surplus/(Deficit) retained for the period)”.
Muoka, however stated that “this does not imply that the Commission incurred a cash deficit as the expenditure in its financials were both in cash and accruals applicable to the year.”
The Commission also stated that the online publication should have inquired to know about the constituents of its expenditure.
By so doing, “it would have learnt that the expenditures for Year 2021 included accruals for items undergoing procurement at the end of the year, like the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI), being implemented by the Commission, which was standing in the sum of about N24bn in the financial report.”
It also disclosed that it remitted an operating surplus/spectrum fees of about N197.7 billion to the Federal Government under the same Financial Performance Reporting period.
It added it had a bank balance of about N46,97 billion, thus erasing insinuation that there was any deficit spending during the same period.
“The Commission also remitted an Operating Surplus/Spectrum Fees of estimated N197.7bn to the Federal Government, under the same Financial Performance Reporting period.
“[It also] had a bank balance of about N46.97bn, erasing any doubt that there was any deficit spending,” it was added in the release.
The Commission, therefore, disclaimed the wrong impression created by the headline of the online publication, “and subsequent misinterpretation of our financial report in the publication may have had in the minds of the public, and stakeholders.”
The telecoms regulatory agency restated its commitment to effective and transparent processes in all its regulatory, management and financial activities.
