President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, presented the “2023 Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Transition” to the joint session of the National Assembly.
This will be the president’s last budget presentation to the National Assembly as he completes his second term and bow out of office on May 29, 2023.
The president proposed N20.51 trillion for the year with an oil benchmark fixed at $70 per barrel.
The lawmakers had fixed it at $73 per barrel in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which they passed this week.
Other parameters include; daily oil production estimate of 1.69 million barrels (inclusive of Condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day); exchange rate of 435.57 Naira per US Dollar; projected GDP growth rate of 3.75 percent and 17.16 percent inflation rate.
The planned expenditure is as follow; Statutory Transfers of N744.11 billion; Non-debt Recurrent Costs of N8.27 trillion; Personnel Costs of N4.99 trillion; Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees’ Benefits of N854.8 billion and Overheads of N1.11 trillion.
Others are; Capital Expenditure of N5.35 trillion, including the capital component of Statutory Transfers; Debt Service of N6.31 trillion; and Sinking Fund of N247.73 billion to retire certain maturing bonds
President Buhari said the budget was “prepared amidst a very challenging world economy that is weakened by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, high crude oil prices resulting in huge cost of PMS Subsidy and negative spillover effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.”
According to him, many economies around the world are currently contending with fiscal instability, slow growth, food crisis, and high interest rates. “Like many other countries, our economy faces headwinds from low revenues, high inflation, exchange rate depreciation and insecurity.”