An analysis of the Federal Government budgets between 2017 and 2021 has shown that an estimate of N475.8 billion have been spent on surveillance to curtail the high level of insecurity threatening the country.

The report showed that this amount m was budgeted for the nation’s two surveillance agencies – the National Intelligence Agency and the Directorate of State Security Service – which are under the Presidency.

Although available government budget reports did not provide detailed implementation analysis, the agencies’ budget, most often, gets 100 percent releases.

Analysis of the five-year budgets showed that the DSS was allocated N263.9bn (55.5 percent) of the budgeted amount, while the NIA was allocated the remaining N211.9bn (44.5 percent).

Of the surveillance budget, N307.46bn was allocated for salaries and wages for both agencies. The NIA got N158.375bn while the DSS got N149.13bn.

Within the time under review, N233.44m was budgeted for Information Technology Consulting, Internet Access Charges, and Satellite Broadcasting Access Charges at NIA.

Both agencies had N2.82bn budgeted for local and international training over the five-year period. The DSS got N2.65bn while the NIA got N95.16m.