I need more funds to fight fake news, Lai Mohammed tells Senate

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Tuesday said his ministry needs more funds to tackle the scourge of fake news.

Mohammed said this while speaking in Abuja when he appeared before Senator Danladi Sankara led Senate Committee on Information to defend the budget for 2023.

The Minister said his Ministry needs more funds as a matter of urgency to tackle the scourge of fake news, hate speech and propagate the achievements of government in the last seven and a half years.

Mohammed while lamenting the paucity of funds and its impact on the activities of the Ministry described the situation as “very sad”.

He said out of the total of N2.5 billion appropriated to the Ministry and all of its agencies for capital projects in 2022, only a paltry N1.7 billion was released representing 41% to undertake 22 different projects.

The Minister who lamented the prospect of having the capital budget for the Ministry and its entire agencies in 2023 slashed to N869 million complained that only the sum of N525 million representing 58% of the Ministry’s allocation was released for overheads in 2022.