Director-general, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, on Wednesday, said the N8.8 trillion budget estimates approved by President Muhammadu Buhari as the 2019 budget was designed to restore the economy to a higher diversified, sustainable and inclusive growth path.
Akabueze said the budget, titled the budget of continuity, would build on the 2018 budget of consolidation as well as the budget of the two previous years of the Buhari administration.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday during a roundtable discussion on the National Budget organised by Abuja Chamber of commerce noted that the budget is anchored on the economic recovery and growth plan 2017 to 2020 of the government.
Akabueze explained that the budget presents business opportunities in oil and gas, power, transport infrastructure, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) manufacturing, solid minerals.
He said, “Bank of industry and bank of agriculture are being recapitalised, and in addition there is also a N10 bn naira grant, to subsidize the interest rate on lending to SMEs.”
Akabueze however regrets that despite the business opportunities the budget presents,the size of the budget shows that the federal government expenditure is just about 7 percent of what happens in the economy, adding that economic growth will not be felt by Nigerians with that percentage.
According to him, “Nigerian government is simply not spending enough, our budget not big enough, when I hear people get excited about 8.8trn budget, obviously they do not understand that we are not spending nearly half of what we should be spending”.
“However, the Federal government is the biggest spender in the economy, but not the determinant of the direction of the economy. Sometimes we lose sight of that fact and we act like the federal government budget is the economy.
“In aggregate, public sector spending as a percentage of the GDP for Nigeria is the lowest on the continent of Africa, when you aggregate the federal and state you come to 10 to 12 percent of the continent of Africa, the average in Africa is 22 percent.
The more optimistic projections about the African growth is to a. Significant extent projected on the expectations of Nigeria. Government are projecting a 3.01 per cent growth in 2019.
“The conversation we should be having is how we must meet this minimum level of growth, because it’s about the rate which our population is growing, anything below this rate won’t be felt.
“Until we restore growth to the six 7 percent the vast majority of Nigerians will not feel any growth.”
He however called for a more inclusive budget and an end in the delay in presenting the budget, which he said often, slows down economic growth.
“There was a planned expenditure of N593 billion by about nine government agencies and N566bn that out lending partners will be spending, which was not included in the budget. Hopefully in future the Federal Government will get a more inclusive budget,” he said.
The president ACCI, Adetokunbo Kayode, while affirming that the budget in terms of expenditure is just a drop in the bucket of what actually happens in the economy especially in the work of the private sector called for more inclusion of the private sector in the budget making process
He informed that the private sector is responsible for at least 88 per cent of the budget. “But they are not engaged in the budget making process. That has to change,” he said
