IGR: FCCPC Generates Over N56bn In 2023

Mr. Babatunde Irukera, Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission(FCCPC), has said that the Commission raked in over N56billion as Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) in 2023.

Irukera, who stated this at a strategic media engagement organised by the Commission in Abuja, said the Commission remitted N22.4 billion to the Federation Account this year. Irukera said that over 90 per cent of the IGR was generated from penalties imposed on various companies and organisations for various infractions.

He revealed that the Commission has become self-funded since the beginning of 2023, as it has vacated from government annual budgetary provisions.

Giving the overview of the Commission’s budgets since 2017 when he assumed Office as the Executive Vice Chairman , Irukera said the Commission got one billion naira as budget from the Federal Government and generated N154 million as revenue in that year.

He said the Commission got N3.2billion, N1.3 billion from government budget in 2018 and 2019 respectively and generated N377 million as IGR in 2019.

The Executive Vice Chairman said that in 2020, the Commission’s budget from the Federal Government was N887 million and it generated N864 million as an IGR.

”By 2021, the government approved a budget of N1.8 billion to the Commission and the agency generated N4 billion and remitted N1.6 billion.

”As a matter of fact, what the government released from the treasury that year for the agency was N1.3 billion, so the agency gave the government more money than it got from it.

”In 2022, the government budget was N1.3 billion for the agency, the agency did not touch a single kobo of the operational or capital expense, the agency made N5.2 billion and remitted N2.6 billion.

”In 2023, our IGR is N56 billion and we remitted to the government N22.4 billion,” he explained. Irukera said the health development demonstrated the possibility of an Institution, where there is commitment and dedication to duty. He underscored the need for institutions and organisations to be held accountable for their actions.

“As long as we continue to shift the goal post of accountability, we will not get accountability,” he said.

According to him, we believe that businesses must be held accountable and we believe in consequences.

”What makes the market stable is holding businesses accountable. Consequence management system is what we have adopted.

”We are not trying to close down businesses but they must know that if you snooze, you loose. ”You cannot distort the market and expect that there will be no consequences,” he said.

He further enumerated some of the activities of the Commission in the fight against illegal and fraudulent digital money lenders who have often swindled the consumers.

He expressed joy that the fight against fraudulent money lenders is yielding fruit, adding that their activities must be regulated.

“We strongly disagree with compounding balance. I believe that the future of online lending is a better regulated ecosystem,” he asserted. He therefore, solicited the support of the media in the area of advocacy and sensitisation of consumers on their rights as enshrined in the FCCPC Act 2018.

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