President Muhammdu Buhari on Friday at the State House, signed the revised 2020 budget into law at 11:04am.
The N10.8 trillion budget was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday 11 June and Wednesday 10 June 2020 respectively.
In a series of tweets, Tolu Ogunlesi the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Digital and New Media, confirmed the budget signing. “11.04am, July 10, 2020: President Buhari signs Revised 2020 Budget into Law” he wrote.
One of the tweets quoted the president as saying “President Buhari: As at 31st May 2020: 253 billion Naira released for implementation of Capital Projects. Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning is working to ensure that by the end of this month all Ministries receive 50% of their Capital Budget.”
This “253 billion Naira” said to be have been released for capital expenditure by the President at the end of May 2020 is far below the budgeted amount for the first 3 months of the year.
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In first quarter of 2020, there was 71.3% shortfall in capital expenditure. The actual capital expenditure amounted to N139.7 billion compared to N487.27 billion budgeted for the period.
On the other hand, the recurrent expenditure enjoyed a 16% rise to N2.09 trillion actual amount from N1.8 trillion budgeted amount.
For more read; Nigeria Used 99% of Revenue for Debt Servicing in Q1 2020
The actual Personnel costs also rose by 3.2% to N729.56 billion from N706.91 billion budgeted amount for the period.
Total of N4.938 trillion (45.7%) was allocated to recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while N2.488 trillion (23.03%) is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure in the 2020 revised budget.
The N253 billion the President said have been disbursed for Capital Projects as at May 2020, represents just 10.17% of the total Capital Expenditure.
One can only imagine how it would be possible to achieve 50% disbursement “by the end of this month” as the President suggested.
For more read; Senate Passes the Increased Revised 2020 Budget
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
