In the proposed budget for 2024, the Defence and Security sector has been allocated the highest amount, with N3.25 trillion, accounting for 12 percent of the total expenditure.
Following closely is the Education Sector, which is expected to receive N2.18 trillion, making up 7.9 percent of the budget.
Of this amount, N1.23 trillion has been provisioned for Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies (Recurrent & Capital expenditure), while N251.47 billion has been set aside for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and N700 billion provisioned for Transfers to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for infrastructure projects in Tertiary institutions.
Another critical allocation in the 2024 Budget is the Health sector with the sum of N1.33 trillion, representing 5 percent of the projected expenditure.
From this allocation, N1.07 trillion is the mount provisioned for Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies (Recurrent & Capital expenditure), while N137.21 billion is for Gavi/ Immunization funds, including Counterpart Funding for Donor Supported Programmes, and N125.74 billion earmarked for transfer to Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), showing 1 percent of CRF.
Infrastructure has been allocated N1.32 trillion, representing 5 percent of Budget, and this includes provisions for Works & Housing, Power, Transport, Water Resources, Aviation; while N534 billion, indicating 2 percent of the Budget has been set aside for Social Development & Poverty Reduction Programmes. This is the amount provisioned for Social Investments/Poverty Reduction Programmes.
These figures were given by Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning on Wednesday in a breakdown and highlights of the 2024 Executive Budget proposal.
He said the draft 2024 budget has been prepared against the backdrop of continuing global and domestic challenges.
According to him, “Overall, fiscal risks have increased, following weaker-than-expected domestic economic performance and structural issues in the domestic economy.”
The Minister acknowledged that revenue generation remains the major fiscal constraint to Nigeria’s fiscal viability, and noted that the government is reviewing current tax and fiscal policies with a view to improving revenue generation.
The target, according to him, is to increase the ratio of revenue to GDP from less than 10 percent currently to 18 percent within the current term of this Administration, stressing that efforts will however focus on improving tax administration and collection or efficiency.
The Minister said, “Government will make efforts to further contain financial leakages through effective implementation of key public finance management reforms.
“The goal of fiscal interventions will be to further stimulate the economy through carefully calibrated regulatory/policy measures designed to boost domestic value-addition, de-risk the enterprise environment, attract external investment and sources of funding, etc.
“Government remains mindful of the need to provide safety nets to cushion the impact of reform measures on the vulnerable segments of the population”.
He reiterated that early passage of the Budget for implementation from January 1 will significantly contribute towards achievement of government macro-fiscal and sectoral objectives.
Source: Nigerian Tribune
