President Bola Tinubu has signed the N28.78 trillion 2024 Appropriation Bill into law, warning that ministers and heads of agencies that would not aid effective implementation of the budget may be shown the way out.
According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu assented to the bill at the State House, on Monday, shortly after returning to Abuja from Lagos.
Speaking at the signing of the bill, the President assured Nigerians that the implementation of the budget would be efficiently pursued and vigorously monitored, saying “I cannot conclude my remark without saying that a budget is only as good as its implementation. We will implement this. I want to assure Nigerians that all the MDAs and our teams have been warned, that’s why we even take our time to separate Economic Planning from Finance.
“MDAs must have regular reports of the budgetary performance in the area that we put in place to help ordinary Nigerians. The goal is to promote efficiency, dedication, and accountability. If you cannot do that, you may have to leave us to do the job on your behalf.
“All MDA’s have been directed to take responsibility and provide monthly Budget Performance Reports to the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, which in turn shall ensure the veracity of such.
“The Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy shall hold regular reviews with the Economic Management Team and, in addition, I shall Chair periodic Economic Coordination Council meetings,” he said.
He lauded the National Assembly for the work it did to bring the budget out on time, recalling his Budget Presentation moments and summing the expedience put into the process to the kind of positive relationship existing between the executive and legislative arms of government.
“When I presented the budget on the November 29, 2023, I presented N27.5tn and left room and I called for expeditious treatment of the budget, the review, the passing, the debate and all that.
Today we have a budget of N28.7tn with an increase of N1.2tn over the proposal that I submitted.
“I thank the National Assembly for this prompt review, adjustment and auditing necessary. This is an evidence and a great testament to the excellent relationship between the executive and the legislature. We should keep it up”, he said.
He went on to highlight both the focus and structure of the budget, which is said is aimed at giving hope to the ordinary Nigeria and as well as weighing the balance more on capital expenditure more than the recurrent.
“In my address then, I remarked that the budget is a Budget of Renewed Hope. It is anchored on reducing the deficit and increasing capital expenditure, particularly in our priority areas. The approved 2024 Budget that we just approved, achieve both objectives. It contains a very good increase in the capital side, a reduction in recurrent expenditure and it brought down the deficit from 6.11% to 3.88%. That, to me, is an achievement.
“Then we can debate in the area of economic thinking, whether capital expenditure and reduction in the recurrent means what. It’s a subject of interpretation. It means a lot. It means where the hope is hanged in development and particularly human capital development.
“When you pay attention to Education, Health and road infrastructure, you are resuscitating the economy and making sure that the ordinary people are carried along.
“While we take Power and Steel and other projects, one of the priority areas we just passed is the N100bn provision for the feeding of school children that is a stimulant that will encourage our school attendance and others.
“I’ll been meeting with local governments at sub-national levels so that we can collaborate and jointly bring an all inclusive programme that will help. Yes, I’m pleased with what you’ve done with the judiciary and other areas. All other details will be mentioned in future”, he said.
The top priorities of the 2024 budget of N28.7 trillion are defense and internal security, job creation, macro-economic stability, improved investment environment, human capital development, poverty reduction, and social security.
The President emphasized that his commitment to enhance investment promotion while creating a rules-based society that favours no individual over the law begins with important reforms in the Nigerian judiciary, the funding for which is captured in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
“Funding the judiciary is a major element in our effort to support a just, rules-based society. Statutory transfer to the Judiciary has been increased from 165 billion naira to 342 billion naira,” the President said.
Some of the key estimates are capital expenditure, N10 trillion; recurrent expenditure, N8.8 trillion; debt service, N8.2 trillion, and statutory transfers, N1.7 trillion.
Speaking on how the budget will be funded, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, said government would immediately do what it needs to do to ensure that all revenues are brought in, so it could rely more on generated revenues than on borrowing.
“The first thing to say is that it’s a lower budget deficit, so it’s a lower financing requirement and in fact, as a percentage of GDP, the budget deficit is down from 6.1% to 3.8%. So we’re relying less on borrowing and more on revenue and I think you have to take the two together. I think we’re very optimistic about the improvements in revenue that will take place.
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“We are all ready, even from tomorrow, applying technology and the digitalization to ensure that the revenue that should come to government from all sources, including from government-owned enterprises, comes into the consolidated revenue fund and on the other side, we are bringing order to government borrowing, so Ways and Means is being eliminated by taking the funding that is required from the market, as opposed to from printing of money by Central Bank.
“That, in a nutshell, is what is happening on the financing side. We are very optimistic that not only will this budget be funded adequately, but it will be funded on a timely basis as well”, he said.
Reacting to criticisms from some quarters that the budget was passed in a hurry, Bagudu said the budget went through a thorough process, but explained that the process was seamless this time around because all those involved in the process, from the President down the line were experienced in the process.
“There’s nothing like in a hurry. This shows that people are on their toes. Mr. President had experience as a member of the National Assembly, he had the experience as a state governor and then luckily for us as a country, now he’s sitting atop the affairs as the President.
“Equally, many members of his team; the Vice President, Chief of Staff, SGF, many ministers, the First Lady of the Federation, so there has been a buildup of relationship between the National Assembly… as it ought to be.
“Committees are supposed to be working, it’s not when you are passing budget that committees should know the priorities of the relevant sectors. Mr. President, ever since he was sworn in, left no one in doubt that look, I want you to respect institutions; as ministers, respect National Assembly. They work well with the committees.
“The oversight is respected, we welcome interrogation, he said so publicly. So even before the budget process started full-stream, there was good understanding about what the challenges are, what the priorities are, and therefore it’s easy to come to conclusion as to what we should do, and that’s what we have done”, he explained.
Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who addressed State House Correspondents afterward, said the legislature will be working closely with the executive to monitor the budget’s implementation, given the President’s earlier directive.
“So we have already enjoined all our committees to get to work. And that means the President has also pointed out that it’s good to have a monthly report from the ministers or the MDAs and any head of any agency or minister found wanting to have to find his way out of his administration, with that instruction and order.
“With that directive from the President, ours is to monitor what goes on to ensure that, indeed, it is one thing to do a budget; it is another thing for the budget to be fully implemented,” said Akpabio.
He also defended the move N27tn Tinubu proposed last November to N28tn, saying it had “very verifiable justifications.”
Also speaking, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, revealed that the 2024 budget was not the only piece of legislation President Tinubu assented to on Monday.
Abbas told journalists that Tinubu also signed the supplementary budget 2023—which will now run until March 31—and securtitised the controversial Ways and Means.
He explained: “Mr. President has signed two other bills. The first one is the supplementary appropriation bill of 2023, which he has agreed to extend by 90 days. So, it will continue to work concurrently with the 2024 budget up to March 31.
“He has also approved the 2023 main budget to concurrently operate with the capital component of the 2024 budget up to March 31, 2024.
“Another landmark achievement we had was also approving the securitisation of the ways and means that have effectively brought to an end these controversial means and ways of borrowing money. And he has assured Nigerians that this will be the last of this kind of ugly incident”, Abbas said.
Among those with the President while he signed the budget were the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, were on hand as well.
Also on ground were the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila; National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Ganduje; Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola; Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon Abubakar Bichi, among other
-The Nation
