By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
Nigeria’s Minister of Works Engr David Umahi says he has written to be delivered to concerned authorities a letter requesting that COREN (Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria) be reconsidered for government funding.
Umahi disclosed this while playing host to a visiting joint delegation of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and the killCOREN, led by the NSE President Engr Margaret Aina Oguntala and COREN President, Prof. Sadiq Zubair Abubakar.
The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Yakubu Adam Kofarmata, said the decision to remove COREN and other agencies from government budget was a decision of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
He told the delegation that a letter was written from the office of the Minister just the day before their visit to the appropriate quarters, requesting that COREN and perhaps a few other very critical agencies be reconsidered for government funding.
He assured them that the ministry was ready to give them all the support they may need.
“This ministry will collaborate with you and give you all the necessary assistance required in our collective effort to move the nation forward,” he said.
In her remark on behalf of the delegation earlier, the NSE President, Engr Oguntala, stressed the fact that the exclusion of COREN from the budget would make it difficult for COREN to perform its critical role in the system, urging a review of the decision by the government.
Congratulating the Minister on his appointment, she thanked President Bola Tinubu for appointing a professional in the person of Engr Umahi to man the right ministry.
The federal government had earlier announced the exclusion of 26 professional bodies and councils of agencies from its 2024 budget.