The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved N13.08 trillion as the country’s 2021 budget estimates.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed , disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Today, the Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning presented to Council the proposals for the 2021 budget but before doing that, we also presented the performance of the 2020 budget up to July 2020.
“The performance for the federal government’s budget for 2020 as at July, for revenue was 68 percent, the performance of expenditure on the other hand, was 92. 3 percent and that is to say salaries were fully paid, pension was paid, debt was made as well as transfers that are classified as statutory,” she said.
The minister said the budget is based on an oil benchmark of $40 per barrel and production estimate of 1.86 million barrels per day. including 400,000 of condensate.
“The budget assumptions that were presented to Council today include one; crude oil price benchmark at $40 per barrel. Two, oil production at 1.86 million barrels per day. Exchange rate of N379 to US$1. Four, GDP growth target of 3percent; and five, inflation rate of 11.95 percent.
“We have a total aggregate revenue of N7.89 trillion and also an aggregate expenditure of N13.08 trillion for 2021. There’s a fiscal deficit of N4.489 trillion, this represents 3.64%, slightly above what is required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 3% and also to report that the total capital expenditure that is projected in the Budget is 29% of the aggregate expenditure. This is an improvement over the 24% that we had in the 2020 Budget, but slightly below the 30% that we targeted in the economic recovery,” she said.
She said government expects a GDP growth of three percent.She said 60 government owned enterprises were captured in the 2021 budget, thereby, improving on just 10 that were hitherto there. She said the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation ;NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were not included due to their peculiar nature and international practice.
“The total budget proposal that is made for 2021 is to enable us to attain a more inclusive growth and also to achieve the key objectives of government, which includes stimulating the economy, creating jobs, enhancing growth and creating infrastructural investment, also promoting manufacturing and local production.
“We do expect that Nigeria’s economy will recover to the path of growth early in 2021, so the total aggregate revenue that is projected for the 2021 Budget is N7.89 trillion and what is unique about the 2021 Budget is that we have brought in the budgets of 60 government-owned enterprises. If you recall, in 2020 we brought in 10, now we have brought in 60.
“These 60 exclude NNPC and the Central Bank and the reason being NNPC, a national oil company, internationally national oil companies are not included in the national budget. Also, the CBN is an autonomous body. Only those two are excluded, 60 government-owned enterprises included. That is to say their revenue and all categories of expenditure are now integrated in the Budget.
“Just to clarify that the 1.86 million barrels per day crude oil production includes 400,000 condensates, so we have complied with the OPEC quota, which is placed at about 1.5 million barrels per day. So, the 1.46 is in meeting with the OPEC quota.
“This is important to us because as you report, if you just report the 1.86, some members of OPEC appear to think that we are exceeding OPEC quota, whereas we are reporting oil and condensate,” she said.
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