President Bola Tinubu has presented the 2024 national budget of N27.5 trillion to the National Assembly.
The fiscal document christened ‘Budget of Renewed Hope’, was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday morning.
Addressing the joint session of the National Assembly on the 2024 budget proposal, President Tinubu said the nation’s internal security architecture will be overhauled to enhance law enforcement capabilities to safeguard lives, property, and investments across the country.
“To improve the effectiveness of our budget performance, the government will focus on ensuring value for money, greater transparency, and accountability. In this regard, we will work more closely with development partners and the private sector.
Speaking on the economy, President Tinubu said a stable macro-economic environment was crucial in his administration’s bid to catalyze private investment and accelerate economic growth, hence, his government shall continue to implement business and investment-friendly measures for sustainable growth.
“We expect the economy to grow by a minimum of 3.76 per cent, above the forecasted world average. Inflation is expected to moderate to 21.4 per cent in 2024. In preparing the 2024 Budget, our primary objective has been to sustain our robust foundation for sustainable economic development. A critical focus of this budget and the medium-term expenditure framework is Nigeria’s commitment to a greener future.
The President said a conservative oil price benchmark of 77.96 U.S. Dollars per barrel and a daily oil production estimate of 1.78 million barrels per day were adopted after a careful review of global oil market trends, and that a Naira to U.S. Dollar exchange rate of N750 per U.S. Dollar was adopted for 2024 as well.
Giving a breakdown of the 2024 Appropriation Bill, the President said: “Accordingly, an aggregate expenditure of 27.5 trillion naira is proposed for the Federal Government in 2024, of which the non-debt recurrent expenditure is 9.92 trillion naira while debt service is projected to be 8.25 trillion naira and capital expenditure is 8.7 trillion naira. Nigeria remains committed to meeting its debt obligations. Projected debt service is 45% of the expected total revenue.
“The budget deficit is projected at 9.18 trillion naira in 2024 or 3.88 percent of GDP. This is lower than the 13.78 trillion naira deficit recorded in 2023, which represented 6.11 per cent of GDP. The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totalling 7.83 trillion naira, 298.49 billion naira from privatisation proceeds, and 1.05 trillion naira drawn down on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects.”
Earlier, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, in his speech, told President Tinubu that the National Assembly was committed to unbundling some agencies of government for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
He urged the President to reign in heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government (MDAs) to make themselves available for their 2024 budget defence sessions before the National Assembly.
