THE president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has presented to the two Chambers of the National Assembly, a N20.51 trillion proposed bill ahead of 2023; a bill which is seen as the highest in the history of Nigeria.
Buhari, whose tenure expires next year has presented this record bill while noting that this 8th financial blueprint of his administration is dubbed ‘the budget of Fiscal Sustainability and transition.’
According to him, the bill is budgeted to help the nation in solving critical issues and to also set a good foundation for the incoming administration.
President Buhari also added that he believes from the bill, the federally-collectible revenue is estimated at 16.87 trillion Naira in 2023.
He also added that the total federally distributable revenue is estimated at 11.09 trillion Naira in 2023, while total revenue available to fund the 2023 Federal Budget is estimated at 9.73 trillion Naira, which includes revenues of 63 Government-Owned Enterprises.
President Buhari also said that oil revenue is projected at 1.92 trillion Naira, Non-oil taxes are estimated at 2.43 trillion Naira, FGN Independent revenues are projected to be 2.21 trillion Naira.
Other revenues total 762 billion Naira, while the retained revenues of the GOEs amount to N2.42 trillion Naira.
In his speech, the president explained the fact that the 2023 Appropriation Bill aims to maintain the focus of MDAs on the revenue side of the budget and greater attention to internal revenue generation.
In his words: “Sustenance of revenue diversification strategy would further increase the non-oil revenue share of total revenues.”
While N2.42 trillion Naira would be for spending by Government-Owned Enterprises, the proposed 20.51 trillion Naira 2023 expenditure comprises:
Statutory Transfers of N744.11 billion; Non-debt Recurrent Costs of N8.27 trillion; Personnel Costs of N4.99 trillion; Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees’ Benefits of N854.8 billion; Overheads of N1.11 trillion; Capital Expenditure of N5.35 trillion, including the capital component of Statutory Transfers; Debt Service of N6.31 trillion; and Sinking Fund of N247.73 billion to retire certain maturing bonds.
The president said the government expects a total fiscal operations of to result in a deficit of 10.78 trillion Naira.
This he noted represents 4.78 percent of estimated GDP, above the 3 percent threshold set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
“As envisaged by the law, we need to exceed this threshold considering the need to continue to tackle the existential security challenges facing the country,” Buhari explained.
President Buhari also disclosed that the government has made plans to finance the deficit mainly by new borrowings totalling 8.80 trillion Naira, 206.18 billion Naira from Privatization Proceeds and 1.77 trillion Naira drawdowns on bilateral and multilateral loans secured for specific development projects and programmes.
