See How Much Nigeria Will Expend On Debt Servicing In 2023

President Muhammadu Buhari has presented 2023 Appropriation Bill tagged “Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Transition” to the joint session of the ninth National Assembly.

The President who started the presentation of the N20.15 trillion budget estimate with highlighting some of his administration’s achievements in the last seven and half years, in what he termed two important areas of “Critical Infrastructure and Good Governance.”

He counted some of the transformational investments in Infrastructure, to include constructing over 1,500km critical roads in key economic corridors, investing significantly to restore national railways, completed New Airport Terminals at Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt, as well as reconstructed the Abuja Airport Runway in its first overhaul since its construction in the early 1980s and transformed Nigeria’s challenging power sector, through bespoke

Reviewing the implementation of the 2022 ‘Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability which commenced on the first day of the year, the President said it was, necessary to forward an amended budget proposal to address some exigent issues, especially the significant increase in fuel subsidy.

He said the sum of N8.29 trillion had been spent by July 31 2022 out of the total appropriation of N17.32 trillion adding that despite revenue challenges, his administration consistently met its debt service commitments.

President Buhari, said petrol subsidy has been a recurring and controversial public policy issue in the country since the early ’80s and its current fiscal impact has clearly shown that the policy is unsustainable as a country, hence the need to confront the issue taking cognizance of the need to provide safety nets to cushion the attendant effects on some segments of society.

For the planned expenditure, while debt Service is N6.31 trillion, Statutory Transfers stands at N774. 11 billion, Sinking Fund of N247 billion and N47 billion is mapped out to retire certain maturing bonds, while Non-debt Recurrent Cost is N8.27 trillion, and Personnel Costs is at N4. 99 trillion.

Others are Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees’ Benefits of N888.8billion, overheads of N1.11 trillion among other capital expenditure.