A university teacher, Dr Aminu Usman has advised both states and local government councils in Nigeria to adopt the method of consolidating on the Federal Government budget with that of other tiers to achieve growth and development.
He said that one major problem of budgeting in the country is that people equate the federal budget with that of the states.
Usman, an economics lecturer at the Kaduna State University, who disclosed this to aviation correspondents in an interview on his visit to Port Harcourt last Friday, noted that the lower levels of government are closer to the people, and that their projects have more direct bearing on the common man.
“Budget will start being meaningful and have a positive impact on the economy only if we begin to consolidate the federal budget with that of states and local governments.
“Budget conceptualisation, processing and implementation should be in a coordinated manner for meaningful impact and well-rounded economic growth”, he said.
Usman, however, advised the Federal Government to always implement the capital components of the budget in earnest as this will always likely have positive impact on inflation.
For the budget to have impact on inflation, he said that the pattern of disbursement should favour local contractors and increase food supply.
“Pying local contractors will boost consumption which will increase domestic production of goods and services as well as create employment”, he said.

Corlins Walter