The Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, Moddibo Tukur, on Tuesday, demanded a drastic reduction in the annual budget of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which he put at N1tn.

He also advocated that the salaries of operatives of the NFIU should be captured as a sub-head under the yearly expenditure profile of the apex bank.

Tukur made the request when he led senior officials of his agency to a budget defence session with the Senate Committee on Anti – Corruption and Financial Crimes.

He said since the NFIU was now domiciled in CBN, albeit as an autonomous agency, its salary structure and condition of service should reflect that of the CBN 100 per cent.

He noted that while the total budget projected for Nigeria in 2020 was N10.33tn , that of the CBN was over a trillion naira.

He said the implications of that were that the apex bank takes 10 per cent of the country’s total expenditure projection.

Tukur said, “We are demanding a drastic reduction in the annual budget of the Central Bank of Nigeria and we seek the National Assembly’s support on this.

“The CBN has an annual budget of N1tn which is about 10 per cent of Nigeria’s total budget. Something should be done about it.”