Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to present the 2023 appropriation bill to the National Assembly in September, in line with the planned calendar of activities.
The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze, hinted this in Abuja at training on budget preparation using the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.
The two-day nationwide training on budget preparation, which ended on Tuesday, was organized for over 4,000 budget officers drawn from about 900 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of the government.
Mr Akabueze, who was represented by the Director, Expenditure (Socials) in the Budget Office, Mr Fabian Ogbu, said the federal government under President Buhari is determined to ensure consistent and timely preparation, submission, and approval of annual budgets as part of its Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms.
He, however, lamented that MDAs do not study the Budget Call Circular in detail and as such make mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided if they had complied with the relevant sections of the budget circular.
“The main goal of this training is to provide continuous learning to equip budget personnel with the requisite knowledge, skills, and the tools they require to prepare and submit the 2023 budget,” he said.
“It has been observed that MDAs do not study the budget circular in detail, as such make mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided if they had complied with relevant sections of the budget cycle.”
He said the 2023 budget is also being prepared in tandem with extant federal government policies and guidelines as articulated in the 2023 Budget Call Circular and other relevant laws/regulations.
To address this, Mr Akabueze said one of the modules at the training would address key items and sections to note in the 2023 Budget Call Circular.
