BY Samuel Akpan
President Muhammadu Buhari has presented a record N20.51 trillion 2023 appropriation bill to the national assembly.
The president made the presentation on Friday to the joint session of the national assembly at the temporary chamber of the house of representatives.
The national assembly had approved the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) and fiscal strategy paper (FSP) — parameters on which the 2023 budget will be framed.
While presenting the details, Buhari said the 2023 transition budget was designed to address critical issues and lay a solid foundation for the incoming administration.
He said that based on the parameters and fiscal assumptions, the revenue generation should hit about N16.87 trillion.
The budget is christened ‘Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Transition’.
A breakdown of the budget shows that N744.11 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers, N8.27 trillion for non-debt recurrent costs, N1.1 trillion for overhead costs, and N5.35 trillion for capital expenditure.
“We expect the total fiscal operations of the federal government to result in a deficit of N10.78 trillion,” Buhari said.
“This represents 4.78 percent of estimated GDP, slightly 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.”
The president explained that the budget deficit will be financed mainly through borrowings.
He said this would include new borrowings totalling N8.80 trillion, N206.18 billion from privatisation proceeds and N1.77 trillion drawdowns on bilateral/multilateral loans secured for specific development projects/programmes.
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