President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday presented the proposed 2021 Budget of N13 trillion to the National Assembly.
According to the President, the budget termed Budget Of Economic Recovery and Resilience will address key economic issues as the country tries to recover from the impact of the coronavirus and the oil price drop.
“The Nigerian economy is currently facing serious challenges, with the macroeconomic environment being significantly disrupted by the Coronavirus Pandemic. Real Gross Domestic Product (‘GDP’) growth declined by 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020,” he said.
“This ended the 3-year trend of positive, but modest, real GDP growth recorded since the second quarter of 2017. I am glad to note that, through our collective efforts, our economy performed relatively better than that of many other developed and emerging economies.”
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The proposed expenditure is put at N13.08 trillion with a crude oil benchmark price of $40 per barrel and a daily oil production estimate of 1.86 million barrels (inclusive of condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day).
This includes N1.35 trillion spending by Government Owned Enterprises and Grants and Aid funded expenditure of N354.85 billion.
The 2021 budget contains recurrent expenditure of N5.65 trillion, personnel cost of N3.76 trillion and debt service of N3.12 trillion.
President Buhari in a break down said that the statutory transfers have been put at N484.4 billion while Pension, Gratuities & Retirees Benefits was put at N501.19 billion and Overhead cost at N625.50 billion.
He noted that the country was primed for a second recession in four years but the government has put in place plans to ensure rapid recovery in 2021.
While disclosing that the country’s GDP is projected to be in the negative in the third quarter of 2020, he said the economy may go into a second recession in four years.
“However,” Buhari assured, “we are working assiduously to ensure a rapid recovery in 2021. We remain committed to implementing programmes to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next 10 years.”
