By Ifemosun Adesanya

The Federal Government has announced plans to review the operations of some of its embassies overseas.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyeama, made this disclosure at a forum in Abuja on Wednesday.

Onyeama said that the review became necessary due to the dwindling resources presently and the harsh socioeconomic realities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister said the government had earlier planned to close some of its embassies but would now rationalise some rather than closed.

“I wouldn’t say Nigeria’s resources have improved but yes we are in the process of trying to rationalise the embassies.

Onyeama added that the government feels rationalizing the embassies would be more cost-effective than outright closure.

“What we have discovered is that the process of closing an embassy is more expensive than to actually keep it in operation.

“The cost is huge to close down, so, we had to revisit it,” the minister added.