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2021 Budget to Focus on Security, Human Capital Development and Infrastructure - Zainab Ahmed

Budget and Plans	589 VIEWS
Budget and Plans
589 VIEWS

Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / 11:11 AM / Ottoabasi Abasiekong for WebTV / Header Image Credit: Twitter; @ZShamsuna

The 2021 Budget of the Federal Government christened "Economic Recovery & Resilience" will give top priority to Security, Human Capital Development, and Infrastructure in the nation. Minister for Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this at a virtual presentation of the breakdown of the 2021 FGN Budget.

She said from the expenditure breakdown of the budget the Education Ministry would receive a total of N1.146trn, Health N600.52bn, Defense N1.96trn, Infrastructure N1.114trn while Youth & Social Development would get a total allocation of N1.024trn.

Speaking on revenue the Finance Minister mentioned that the aggregate revenue for the 2021 budget was N7.99trn(36.9% higher than 2020 which was N5.84trn).

70% of the revenue, she noted, would come from the non-oil sector while the oil sector was estimated to provide 30% in the composition. From a fiscal perspective, she stated that the size of the budget at N13.6trn was constrained by relatively low revenues.

According to her, the overall expected budget deficit was N5.6trn which was 3.93% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Other details showed that aggregate capital expenditure would gulp N4.37trn which was 32% of total expenditure and 62.9% higher than the 2020 revised budget.

She also added that N3.32trn had been earmarked for debt servicing which was 24.5% of total expenditure and 12.6% higher than the 2020 revised budget.

In the area of driving transparency in the process she highlighted the fact that the expenditure of 60 Government Owned Enterprises, GOEs have been integrated into the 2021 budget items.

Giving an overview of the 2020 budget performance the Finance Minister said the FG achieved revenue of N3.97trn, which was 73% of the target and much better than previous years of 2018 and 2019 that recorded 50 and 51% performance respectively.

The Oil revenue for 2020 was N1.52trn a 157% overperformance while the Non-Oil revenue was N1.28trn which was 79% of the revised target.

Companies Income Tax, CITA, and the Value Added Tax, VAT was N673.22bn & N192.6bn, translating to a performance of 82% and 62% respectively. Also, Customs collection was N410.2bn while other revenues amounted to N993.7bn

Following the signing of the Fiscal Act 2020, Dr. Ahmed described it as a significant step by the Federal Government in fostering closer coordination of monetary, fiscal, and trade policies, accelerating economic recovery and growth in the nation.

She said the Finance Act 2020 has 14 fiscal law amendments with a special focus on the following thematic areas;