Ben Akabueze, Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, says the N27.5 trillion 2024 ‘Budget of Renewed Hope’ at the National Assembly is insufficient to meet Nigeria’s needs.
According to him, the government has to cut its coat according to its cloth.
Seaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, he said: “I’m always first to acknowledge that the budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria is way too small relative to our needs and our requirements but it is now a case of cutting out coat according to our cloth rather than our size.
“The reason this budget is this small is because our public revenues are also too small. We also need to keep the focus on that.”
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Akabueze who spoke on the economic projections of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government for 2024, insisted that despite the criticisms against the estimates, the appropriation bill caters for the poor in terms of healthcare, security, education and the economy.
Recall that on November 29, 2023, the President presented his maiden budget estimates of N27.5trn for the year 2024 to the National Assembly.
Giving a breakdown of the budget estimates, the President fixed recurrent non-debit expenditure at N9.92trn, capital expenditure at N8.73trn, debt service at N8.25trn, revenue at N18.32trn, new borrowings at N7.83trn and deficit at N9.18trn.
According to the President, the economy is expected to grow by 3.76%, while “inflation is expected to moderate to 21.4 percent in 2024.”
