FG's expenditure for next nine-month expenditure is N3.42tn

These figures are disclosed in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (2016-2018) sent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly. The document was approved by the Federal Executive Council as well.

The document stated that out of the total N4.493tn approved in the 2015 budget, N3.42tn was spent on both recurrent and capital expenditure in the nine-month period.

It stated, “Of the total appropriation of N4.49tn and a supplementary budget of N574.53bn for spending on security and emergency provision of subsidy claims, N3.42tn had been spent as of September for both recurrent and capital, with the shortfall in revenue inflow being made up by additional financing from borrowing and other sources.

“Recurrent expenditure has been on track. About 78.1 per cent, that is N1.77tn of the N2.23tn budgeted for the payment of salaries, pensions and overheads has been released, while debt service has been largely covered.”

According to the statement, the capital spending had been lower than what was budgeted due to revenue shortfalls while the recurrent expenditure was as per the plan.

The MTEF stated, “Capital spending was lower than budgeted due to the revenue challenges and the need to cater for pressing procurement needs like payment of salaries and debt service.

“As of September, N194.77bn of the N557bn budgeted for capital spending had been spent by Ministries, Department and Agencies.”

The seventh Senate while passing the 2015 budget, slightly reduced the N2.607,601,000,300 proposed by the executive to N2.607,132,491,708 as recurrent expenditure and simultaneously scaled down the capital expenditure from N642,848,999,699 estimated in the proposal to N556,995,465,449.

The major share of the 2015 budget was allocated to Education which was N392.3bn. The military and police commands took second and third place with an allocation of N338.7bn and N303.8bn respectively.

Besides, N237bn was voted for the health sector; N153bn for the Ministry of Interior, while N25.1bn was budgeted for the Ministry of Works.

The 2015 budget was based on $53 per barrel oil benchmark price, an exchange rate of N190 to the United States dollar; 2.2782 million per barrels of crude oil production per day and a deficit Gross Domestic Product of 1.12 per cent.

However, with crude oil recently falling to $39 per barrel, the price and revenue shocks are going to continue in the forthcoming expenditure.

The budget of 2015 was approved by Goodluck Jonathan Government in the month of May before vacating the office. The budget is criticized as undersized one as the planned expenditure was 3.2 percent less than that of 2014 budget.