- NBS: economy grew by five per cent in Q2
The Federal Government has so far spent N2.2 trillion servicing debts this year. This amount represents 35 per cent of government’s entire spending so far in 2021.
Technical Assistant to the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Alfred Okoh, stated this yesterday while giving an overview of the 2022 Budget Call Circular at the commencement of the training of MDAs on 2022 budget preparation.
He said the amount is from the N5.81 trillion the Federal Government has so far spent running the economy.
Okoh said the N5.81 trillion representing 92.4 per cent of the prorated budget was spent from January to August.
He said this excludes Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs’) and project-tied debt expenditures.
From the N5.81 trillion spent N2.02 trillion was for debt service (35 per cent of FGN expenditures); and N1.795 trillion went into Personnel cost, including Pensions (30.9 per cent of FGN revenues).
He said “as at August, N1.3 trillion (84.7 per cent) has been released for capital expenditure,” saying with regards to revenue, federal government’s share of oil revenues stands at N492.44 billion, representing 49 per cent performance, while non-oil tax revenues totalled N778.18 billion or 104.5 percent of pro-rata
Okoh said Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) collections were ahead of the budget targets with N397.02 billion and N129 billion, respectively, representing 116.5 per cent and 108.2 per cent respectively of the pro-rata targets for the period
Customs collections was put at N234.02 billion or 92.1 per cent of target while other revenues amounted to N922.09 billion, of which independent revenues was put at N558.13 billion.
Alfred Okoh noted that Nigeria continues to be exposed to risk in the global capital markets, which will put further pressure on the foreign exchange market as foreign portfolio investors are yet to return to the Nigerian Market.
This situation, he lamented “is compounded by sustained perceptions about over-valuation of the Naira, despite recent adjustments by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),”. aying come 2022, the federal government has set out some assumptions or parametres to guide it in the year.
Oil Price Benchmark (US$/b) has been pegged at $57.0; Oil Production (mbpd) 1.88; Exchange Rate (N/$) 410.15; Inflation (%)13.00; Non-Oil GDP (N’bn) 169,697.4; Oil GDP (N’bn) 14,684.6; Nominal GDP (N’bn) 184,382.0; GDP Growth Rate (%) 4.20; Imports 33,188.8 and Nominal Consumption (N’bn) 149,349.40
Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) Ben Akabueze, said government will be training over 4,000 participants involved in budget preparation from about 900 MDAs.
Akabueze said the Budget Office of the Federation activated Government Integrated Financial Management Information System – Budget Preparation Sub-System (GIFMIS/BPS) 2017 and since then has used the platform for service-wide preparation of the budgets.
”Every MDA has since then prepared and submitted its budget online and in “near real time” using the GIFMIS-BPS application. This has helped address some of the challenges that were experienced during budget preparation in prior years” he said.
He reiterated that the draft 2022 budget will be sent to the National Assembly in September, 2021 to meet the December 2021 passage and assent of the budget and January 2022 commencement of the budget implementation.
