Dipo Olowookere
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The sum of N13.08 trillion (approximately N13.1 trillion) has been approved for the 2021 fiscal year by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The approval was given at the virtual weekly FEC meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday and presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, with his vice, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, in attendance and some Ministers.
This amount is more than the earlier aggregate expenditure of N12.66 trillion estimated for next year in the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) published by the budget office.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, while briefing newsmen after the meeting today, said the budget has about 29 per cent of it earmarked for capital expenditure (CAPEX).
According to her, next year, the council said the sum of N2.083 trillion should be used to execute the various projects spread across the country.
Mrs Ahmed stated that the projects would run on N4.48 trillion deficit, while the revenue target in the financial year is expected to be N7.9 trillion.
She further said the government expects a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 3 per cent in the year and an inflation rate of 11.95 per cent.
A few weeks ago, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the inflation rate in the month of August 2020 increased by 13.22 per cent from 12.82 per cent in July 2020.
During her briefing with journalists today, the Finance Minister stated that next year, the Naira to US Dollar exchange rate is pegged at N379/$1.
In addition, according to her, the crude oil benchmark is at $40 per barrel, while the volume of oil production is expected to be 1.86 million barrels per day, inclusive of 400,000 barrels per day of condensate.
Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies led by Russia known as OPEC+ agreed to an output cut deal in April 2020 so as to stabilise the price of the commodity at the global market when it was steeping at the beginning of the year to less than $20 per barrel.
In the past, Nigeria was allowed to produce over 2 million barrels of crude oil per day, but because of the deal, the country, which depends on oil for most of its revenue, was allowed to produce about 1.7 million barrels per day from May to July and from August till December 2020, it will produce about 1.4 million barrels per day, excluding condensate.
The 2021 budget is expected to be submitted to a joint session of the National Assembly next week by Mr Buhari.
