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The Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is allocated N51 billion fo capital projects in the 2021 fiscal year, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday told a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja.
Other key capital spending allocations in the 2021 Budget include Power: N198 billion (inclusive of N150 billion for the Power Sector Recovery Plan); Works and Housing: N404 billion; Transportation: N256 billion;
Defence: N121 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development: N110 billion; Water Resources: N153 billion; Education: N127 billion;
Universal Basic Education Commission: N70 billion; Health: N132 billion; Zonal Intervention Projects: N100 billion; and Niger Delta Development Commission: N64 billion.
The 2021 budget amounts to N13.08 trillion is anchored on oil benchmark price of $40 per barrel with recurrent expenditure of N5.65 trillion, personnel cost of N3.76 trillion and Debt Service of N3.12 trillion.
Statutory transfers has been put at N484.4 billion while Pension, Gratuities & Retirees Benefits was put at N500.19 billion.
A projected inflation rate of 11.95 per cent and GDP growth rate of 3.00 per cent was considered.
The president budgeted N128 billion for the National Assembly and N63.5 billion for the Niger Delta Development Commission.
Other allocations include N29.7 billion for the North East Development Commission, N110 billion for the Nigerian Judicial Council, N70.05 billion for UBEC and N40 billion for the electoral umpire, INEC.
Mr Buhari said the 2021 budget is titled ‘Economic Recovery and Resilience’ with the aim of promoting economic diversity.
According to President Buhari, the Recurrent Expenditure is allocated to paying salaries and overheads in MDAs providing these critical public services.
“These include: N227.02 billion for the Ministry of Interior; N441.39 billion for the Ministry of Police Affairs; N545.10 billion for Ministry of Education; N840.56 billion for Ministry of Defence; and N380.21 billion for Ministry of Health.
The President added that “Personnel cost is still our largest single item of expenditure. In the 7 months to 31st July 2020, it accounted for 34 percent of total Federal Government spending and is projected at 33 percent of 2021 expenditure”
To check the incidence of payments to non-existent personnel and unauthorised allowances, Buhari said “only Federal staff that have been captured on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (‘IPPIS’) platform will receive salaries.”
“All agencies have been directed to ensure that they obtain all necessary approvals before embarking on any fresh recruitment. Any breach of these directives will be severely sanctioned”, he said.
On Debt Service, the President said “we remain committed to meeting our debt service obligations. Hence, we have provisioned N3.12 trillion for this in 2021, representing an increase of N445.57 billion from N2.68 trillion in 2020. A total of N2.183 trillion has been set aside to service domestic debts while N940.89 billion has been provided for foreign debt service. N220 billion is provided for transfers to the Sinking Fund to pay off maturing bonds issued to local contractors and creditors.”
Total overhead costs of MDAs and Government Owned Enterprises are projected to rise to N625.50 billion in 2021, mainly due to the inclusion of the overheads of an additional 50 Government Owned Enterprises. Overhead provisions have also been made for newly created agencies. To keep a tab on running costs, MDAs must adhere to extant expenditure controls.
