Nigeria to contribute $17 million to AU budget in 2015

Nigeria is to contribute $16.96 million to the $522 million African Union, AU, budget for 2015 as adopted in Malabo on Friday. The 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union in Malabo adopted the budget on the last day of this week’s AU summit. The documents made available to journalists in Malabo showed that Nigeria’s assessed contribution is $699,421 higher than the 2014 figure of $16.2 million. The contribution of the 54-member AU member states to the 2015 budget is $131 million compared to the $126 million in 2014. Nigeria will thus be responsible for about 13 per cent of the members’ contribution to the AU and the 2015 budget. According to the current scale of assessment, 65 per cent of the $131 million contribution would be assessed on the five main contributors including Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Libya and South Africa. The international partners would contribute 72 per cent of the budget, $225.5 million, while $10.9 million, $4.7 million and $205,000 would be drawn from the reserve fund, acquisition and property fund, and the women fund respectively. A breakdown of the approved budget showed that the AU would spend $142.6 million for operational budget and $379.4 million on programmes. The 2015 budget framework focuses on the five pillars of the AU strategic plan including peace and security, socio-economic development, integration, capacity building and communications…. continued