Nigeria has proposed to spend $30.7 billion (N6.08 trillion) in the 2016 fiscal year, with $9.2 billion (N1.8 trillion) allocated to capital expenditure.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who presented the estimates before a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja Tuesday, gave the recurrent estimates as $12.01 billion (N2.35 trillion).
The 2016 proposal is 38 per cent higher than that of 2015.
President Buhari told the lawmakers that the proposal was based on crude oil price benchmark of $38 per barrel, a daily production of 2.2 million barrels and an exchange rate of N190 to a dollar.
The budget, he said, was based on a revenue projection of $20.3 billion (N3.86 trillion) resulting in a deficit of $12 billion (N2.22 trillion).
He explained that the deficit, representing 2.16 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), would raise the country’s overall debt profile to 14 per cent of the GDP
“The deficit will be financed by a combination of domestic borrowing and foreign borrowing, totally $1.7 billion (N1.84 trillion).
“Over the medium term, we expect to increase revenue and decrease overhead to bring the fiscal deficit down to 1.3 per cent of GDP by 2018,” President Buhari explained.
Large chunk of the budget was allocated to works, power and housing, transport, special intervention programmes, defence, education and the interior.
Said the president: “We will invest to safeguard lives and property; we will invest in equipping our farmers with the right tools, technology and techniques.”
The President of the Nigerian Statistical Association, Dr Mohammed Tumala, expressed optimism that the 2016 budget would address infrastructure deficit.
He said in Abuja on Tuesday that the budget would also enhance inclusive growth.
