The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), on Thursday, revealed that the Agency generated over N56 billion in 2023.
Speaking at a media engagement in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera stated that 90 per cent of the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) came by means of payment of penalties by defaulting companies in the country.
“In 2023, our internally generated revenue is already N56bn and we have remitted to the government N22.4bn and for me what this demonstrates is the real possibility of our country. Our possibilities are absolutely limitless.
“We don’t approve a single product, we don’t take fees for registration of anything nor support or sponsorship from companies. All our revenue, at least 90 per cent is from penalties. We believe that the market should be unlocked and businesses should be allowed to operate well and should thrive.
“But we also believe in consequence and businesses must be held accountable, if we don’t hold people accountable, we can’t promote good behavior” he stated.
Irukera explained that, “prior to 2017, the FCCPC had a budget of N1bn from the federal government, of this amount, N511m was the personal cost and salaries of 240 employees at the time. What was released was N796m. Our internally generated revenue was N154m.
“In 2018, the agency had a huge jump in the budget from the treasury and it got a budget of N3.3bn and that is the largest, of which N2.1bn was released.
“By 2019, the budget of the agency went back from N3.3bn down to N1.3bn. Out of that, 518m was personnel cost. In that year, when we started the reforms, the agency made a total Internally generated revenue of N377m, which was unprecedented as the highest at the time. But we were growing the agency as best as we could.
“In 2020, the government budget deeper to N887m of which N582m was for salaries and personnel cost. The agency was able to make approximately what the government gave by itself and the agency revenue that year was N864m.
“By 2021, the government approved a budget of N1.8bn for the agency but the agency generated by itself N4bn and gave to the government N1.6bn,” he stated.
The Executive Vice Chairman further explained that “in 2022, the government budgeted N1.3bn for the agency and N633m was personal cost but the agency didn’t touch a single kobo of the operational and capital expense. The only thing the government paid that year was salaries. In that year, the agency made N5.2bn and remitted it to the government N2.6bn.
“By this time, we had indicated to go out of the budget because we could take care of ourselves, we went to the government and got approval to leave the treasury and so in December 2022, the government said starting from January 2023, we would be taken off the budget.
“2023 is our first year of being on our own and now our personnel cost has hovered from N633m to about N2.5bn. Essentially, our personnel cost went up four times. We didn’t increase number of staff but salaries were improved” he stated.
The Vice Chairman took over the leadership of the Agency six (6) years ago when the Commission was known as the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and has turned the fortunes of the Organisation to a self fund Agency.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
