Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Details of the 2021 budget submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday, October 8, 2020, by President Muhammadu Buhari will be presented to members of the public on Tuesday, October 13, 2020.
This information was disclosed by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning in a notice on Saturday, October 10, 2020.
The presentation will be done by the Minister in charge of the Ministry, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, and would be assisted by her colleague, the Minister of State for the Ministry, Mr Clem Agba, and the Director-General of the Budget Office, Mr Ben Akabueze.
The federal government last Thursday informed the parliament that it intends to spend the sum of N13.08 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year and sought its approval for this.
On how this money would be sourced, President Buhari said the sum of N7.89 trillion is expected to be generated in the year as revenue from both oil and non-oil sectors, while the deficit will be financed mainly from new borrowings totalling N4.28 trillion, N205.15 billion from Privatisation Proceeds and N709.69 billion in drawdowns on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific projects and programmes.
From the aggregate spending for the year, the President said recurrent expenditure will gulp N5.65 trillion, personnel cost will take N3.76 trillion, while N3.12 trillion was earmarked for debt service.
The 2021 appropriation act, according to Mr Buhari, was prepared with a crude oil benchmark price of $40 per barrel and a daily oil production estimate of 1.86 million barrels (inclusive of condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day) while the inflation rate was projected at 11.95 per cent and GDP growth rate of 3.00 per cent was considered.
He told members of the legislative arm of government that oil revenue is projected at N2.01 trillion for the year while non-oil revenue is estimated at N1.49 trillion, with N1.35 trillion projected for spending by Government Owned Enterprises and Grants and N354.85 billion for aid-funded expenditure.
During his speech at the joint session of the parliament last Thursday, Mr Buhari had said: “the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning will, later, provide the full details of these proposals.”
In fulfilment of this, the Minister said this presentation of the budget details will take place on Tuesday at the auditorium of the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja by 10am.
Members of the public were invited for the event, which will be beamed live on Zoom, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
“You are hereby invited for the public presentation of the 2021 budget proposal on Tuesday, October 13, 2020,” a part of the notice said.
However, as a result of the COVID-19 guidelines of the federal government, “physical attendance is limited” and most of the participants would be required to join through the social media channels provided.
Virtual participation via Zoom, a popular video conferencing platform, can be done through the Zoom ID of 87408924861 and passcode of 239259
