Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the private sector in Nigeria to tap from the several opportunities tucked inside the 2020 Appropriation Bill, which was designed to reshape and sustain the economy.
This was the position of the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze, at the 2019 Fellows’ Night and Investiture of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria, where he delivered a lecture on A Critical Analysis of the FGN 2020 Budget Proposals.
He emphasized that government was committed to strengthening the partnership with the private sector by bringing them onboard to invest in infrastructure through the private public partnerships (PPPs).
Mr Akabueze noted that government was committed to finding the resources for infrastructural investment to create favourable environment for the private sector to increase their investments, and significantly contribute to economic growth and job creation.
On the implications of global and domestic developments, he mentioned that global economic recovery was set to improve from 3.0 percent as projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2019 to 3.4 percent in 2020, while sub-Saharan Africa is projected to continue to grow, rising from 3.2 percent in 2019 to 3.6 percent in 2020.
He said all areas including the financial sector had a lot to benefit from investing in government backed securities as this was a good opportunity for them to invest in Nigeria because key reforms such as the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRGI), would be implemented to improve revenue collection and expenditure management in the country.
Comparing the country’s total taxes to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), value added tax (VAT) to GDP, and excise to GDP with other African nations, Mr Akabueze explained that it indicates capacity to do a lot more to improve the country’s fiscal space.
“Key assumptions driving the budget are realistic, derived from extensive and robust modelling with comparative analysis.
“Achieving FGN 2020 budget objectives require bold, decisive, and urgent action. Government has always maintained a comparative posture to oil benchmark price. Government is determined to act as may be required,” he added.
