President Muhammadu Buhari has presented the N13.08trillion budget estimates for the 2021 fiscal year to the joint session of the National Assembly for consideration and approval.
Compared to budget presentations done in previous years, the President was only accompanied by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and a few ministers, while the others participated virtually.
According to Senate President Ahmed Lawan, the new arrangement became necessary in order to maintain social distancing during the presentation, as a result of the COVID-19.
Before presenting the proposed budget, the President gave a breakdown of the performance of the 2020 budget.
The estimate is N2.28 trillion higher than the 2020 revised budget of N10.805 trillion.
It has a total aggregate revenue projection of N7.89 trillion with a deficit of N4.48 trillion.
The budget proposal is predicated on N379 per dollar exchange rate; oil benchmark of $40 barrel per day; and oil production volume of 1.86 million per day.
Inflation growth rate was projected at 11.95 percent; while Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was fixed at 3 percent.
The total capital expenditure projected in the budget is N3.58 trillion, representing 29% of the aggregate expenditure. This is an improvement over the 24 percent projected in budget 2020.
The budget breakdown shows that N5.66 trillion is for recurrent (Non-Debt) expenditure; N3.05 trillion for Personnel Costs; N350 billion for Special Intervention (Recurrent); and N20 billion for Special Intervention (Capital).
Sectoral Allocations is as follows;
Ministry of Power: N198 billion, Works and Housing N440 billion, Ministry of Defence N121 billion, Ministry of Defence N110 billion, Ministry of Water Resources N146 billion, Ministry of Education N127 billion, UBEC N70 billion, Ministry of Health N132 billion, Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIP) N100 billion, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) N64 billion.
President Buhari urged federal legislators to pay as much attention to the government’s revenue generation, which he said had remained the major challenge of his administration.
He said the budget was prepared amid the global economic downturn occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic.
The President, however, said he had directed ministers to monitor strictly revenue generation by the government agencies.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, in his brief speech, assured that the budget will be passed before before the end of the year.
