The Director-General of budget Office, Ben Akabueze, has assured Nigerians that the implementation of the 2020 budget will be better and results driven despite the growing spate of coronavirus plaguing the world today.
Akabueze made this known at the 2020 National Budget Roundtable and Panel Discussion organised by Covenant University in partnership with the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research and the World University Ranking 2020 top 500 held recently at CUCRID, Covenant University, Ogun State.
Akabueze, who was represented by the Technical Adviser to the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Olumide Ayodele, said that the Federal Government’s resolve to fully implement the 2020 budget is not negotiable.
“We will continue to ensure that the economy stays on a growth trajectory whilst making strategic investments in critical infrastructure and human capital to spur further economic growth. We hope to implement the 2020 Budget 100%. We have released N220 billion of the 2020 MDA capital to sectors requiring funds in the dry season. Sectors like Agriculture will be prioritized during the raining season.”
Akabueze posited that Nigeria has had eleven consecutive quarters of positive growth since the exit from recession, though levels remain below desirable targets, adding that highest quarterly growth of 2.55% in Q4 2019.
“We will continue to deepen our non-oil sector performance with non-oil GDP at over 93% of GDP as at Q4 2019. We have made unprecedented progress with social investment programmes and are innovating ways of funding infrastructure,” he said.
Although, he noted that Nigeria currently has huge infrastructural gap as infrastructure investments in in the country have been insufficiently financed with public funds.
“The investments required to bridge the gap are clearly beyond the means available to government. Hence, it has become imperative to look beyond government finances for the country to have any hope of achieving its full development potential”, he said.
The DG of Budget Office who noted that the fiscal budget is a key tool for implementing government development agenda, said it designed to achieve social, economic and political objectives.
“Nigeria’s public investment requirements by far exceed available financial resources. Nigeria is not an oil rich economy. We will ensure that funds are allocated to projects and programmes likely to deliver maximum benefits relative to their costs,” he said.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research, Prof. Evans Osabuohien, had said the rising debt profile of the country was destroying the economy.
The Professor of Economics, who expressed shock at the Federal Government’s recent plans to borrow $22.7bn, said government must count the cost of its continuous borrowing habit
“One of the highlights of the joint sessions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in October 2019 was that the debt profile of many developing countries, including Nigeria, is rising. Despite all these, it is shocking to know that the Federal Government of Nigeria is planning to borrow $22.7bn. This will further increase the volume of Nigeria’s debt.”