The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed says 80% of the revenue projected for the 2023 budget of N20.52 trillion naira will be derived from the non-oil sector.
Dr. Ahmed made this known on Wednesday in Abuja at the ministerial presentation of the 2023 budget christened ”budget of fiscal consolidation and transition’
The Minister of Finance said the IMF had projected that economic growth would decline globally from 6.0% in 2021 to 2.7% in 2023, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, rising cost of food and fuel driven by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
She explained that the budget was prepared against the backdrop of those challenges.
Benchmarks
Dr. Ahmed however projected that the nation’s economy would grow by 3.75% and inflation at 17.16 %, and that they would be driven by activities during the next elections.
Other benchmarks include; crude oil price at $70 as against $73 in 2022 and crude production at 1.69 million barrels per day.
On the fuel subsidy, she said N3.36trillion had been set aside for that and would run till mid 2023.
Dr. Ahmed also gave a breakdown of the total revenue of N9.73 trillion and emphasized that it would be driven by the non-oil sector (80%) while the oil sector accounts for 20%.
She also said the budget had a deficit of N10.78 trillion, which is 4.78% of the GDP and would be funded by domestic and multilateral borrowings and proceeds from privatization.
On the debt profile, the Minister said it current stood at $102 billion, comprising 35% foreign debt and 65% domestic.
She allayed the fears of the citizens, and gave an assurance that the nation’s debt was still within limit that is 23% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Allocation to critical sectors
Giving the breakdown of the budget in critical sectors, Dr. Ahmed said education got 10 % that is N2.05 trillion including N300 billion for university revitalization and N170 billion for upward adjustments of salaries for university lecturers.
Others include health N1.58 trillion, defense and security got N2.74 trillion, infrastructure received N998.9 billion while social development and poverty reduction was allocated N756 billion.
She pointed out that crude production challenges and PMS subsidy continue to threaten revenue growth targets but efforts were on to enhance revenue collection, to bring the informal sector into the tax net and improve the ease of doing business.
Dr. Ahmed stressed the need to urgently address revenue underperformance and expenditure efficiency at national and sub- national levels and urged civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders to enhance the budget implementation through monitoring.
On October 7, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari during the presentation of the 2023 budget to the National Assembly had said the details of the budget would be given by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
He said the 2023 budget was designed to address critical issues and lay a solid foundation for the next administration.
In his opening remark, the Director General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze said the meeting was on the instance of the president’s directive to avail the details of the budget for scrutiny by the public.
Writing by Annabel Nwachukwu