Landlord threatens to eject Nigerian Embassy in Hungary over non-payment of rent

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Nigerian Embassy in Hungary risks being ejected from its building over non-payment of rent.

Mr Onyeama made this disclosure on Tuesday while defending the ministry’s 2021 budget at the House of Representatives.

He also said the ministry needs N1.6 billion to move ambassadors and pay officers N3.7 billion.

“Just on Monday, the Ambassador in Hungary called to say they are going to throw them out from the chancery building. That the landlord is coming and that they do not have the money to pay,” he said.

“And we get that from a lot of missions across the world and that is not a sustainable way of running foreign service.

“Then this exchange rate differential with the CBN is really something we need to address once and for all.”

The minister added: “It is not so easy, all of these things are computed in naira and all the payments abroad are in dollars and once the exchange rate is changed, it never goes the other way, it always goes up, it never comes down vis-a-vis the dollar. This means immediate shortfall for all our missions.”