President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday present a budget estimate of N16.4 trillion to a Joint Session of the National Assembly, tripling the size of the national budget in the last six years.
Nigeria’s budget stood at (N4.8 billion in 2015 when Buhari took over the reigns from former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He subsequently increased the tally to N6.06 trillion in 2016 and the pattern has remained sustained through the years.
From N13 trillion in 2020, Buhari seeks National Assembly approval for a whopping N16.4 trillion for 2022, with a deficit of N6.6trillion, representing about a quarter of the budget.
Ahead of the budget presentation, Buhari in a letter to the National Assembly on Tuesday seeks an adjustment of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF.
He had in the previous Medium Term Expenditure Framework projected an aggregate Expenditure of 13.98 trillion naira but the revised version comes with a lot of changes which the President said was necessitated by the need to reflect the new fiscal terms in the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and other critical expenditures in the 2022 budget.
Adjusting the fiscal document, Buhari also requested National Assembly approval for an additional N100 billion to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to organize the 2023 general elections.
The President’s wish list also included another N510 billion for the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy and N50 billion as hazard allowance for health workers.
The revision did not however affect the principal projection of foreign exchange rate of N460 to $1 and a daily oil production of 1.8million barrel and at $57 per barrel of crude.
