Three Nigerian ministries will next year spend N9.4 trillion on costs of running their operations, if the 2024 appropriation bill receives legislative approval.
The three ministries are finance, budget & economic planning as well as industry, trade & investment.
The estimated amount is 27.5 per cent or N2.02 trillion higher than 2023 figure, an amount almost six-and-a half times the cost of building the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, whose reconstruction was completed this year at N311.4 billion.
It also implies that the sum is capable of constructing about 823.8-kilometre stretch of road of that standard, quality and size, all things being equal.
The increase in the overhead expenses is part of the cost pressures that are set to add N7.83 trillion in fresh borrowing to a pile of debt, already at N87.9 trillion at the end of September according to Debt Management Office data.
The Federal Ministry of Finance alone will expend N8.5 trillion on overheads, 15.8 per cent more than the N7.34 trillion budgeted for it a year ago when the ministry and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning were combined into one.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment is ramping up its spending plan on overheads by as much as 40 per cent from N2.4 billion to N3.2 billion.
Both the finance and budget & economic planning ministries together plan to increase running costs by 27.5 per cent to N9.4 trillion from N7.3 trillion.
The combined overhead costs of the three ministries alone accounts for 94 per cent of all the ministries, departments and parastatals in Nigeria in 2024 and surpasses the nation’s entire capital expenditure by N660 billion or 7.6 per cent, indicating the government’s lack of commitment to prioritising capital projects.
President Bola Tinubu’s expectations through the “Budget of Renewed Hope” appear uncertain, considering that the proposed capital spending has only been increased by 3.2 per cent even when revenue is projected to increase by 66.4 per cent compared to last year.
Aggregate expenditure for next year is N27.5 trillion, with capital expenditure not up to one-third of that.
The projection for capital spending, at N8.7 trillion, is only 3.2 per cent higher than 2023’s, raising questions on government’s commitment to using its own funds to finance expansion of infrastructures.
“The budget proposal meets our goal of completing critical infrastructure projects which will help address structural problems in the economy,” President Tinubu had said during his budget presentation at the national assembly in the last week of November.
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