More details has emerged about the revised 2020 budget which has been signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday 10 July 2020. The N10.8 trillion budget was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday 11 June and Wednesday 10 June 2020 respectively.
According to the details revealed by BudgIT Nigeria, a civic tech organisation, raising the standards of transparency, citizen engagement & accountability most especially in public finance, just 3.8% (N414 bn) of the total budget was allocated to health sector, despite Covid-19 pandemic.
87.6% of allocation to health (N363bn) will be spent on personnel and admin costs, while just N51bn was set aside for capital projects in the Health Sector.
Allocations to Ministry of Agriculture is a paltry N160bn. This represents just 1.5% of the total 2020 revised budget. About 63% (N102 bn) of Agriculture budget will go into capital expenditure while 37% (N57 bn) is for recurrent expenditure. Nigerian Government needs to invest more in Agriculture if it plans to make the sector a strong pillar of Nigeria’s economy.
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N376.3bn was allocated to the ministry of humanitarian affairs, representing just 3.5% of the total budget size. 84% of its allocation (N317bn) will be spent on personnel and administrative expenses while 16% (N59.3bn) will be for capital expenditure.
N288.7bn was allocated to Works & Housing sector. 92% of its allocation (N265.8bn) is for capital expenditure while 8% (N22.9bn) is for recurrent expenditure.
N133.4 bn (1.2% of the total budget) was allocated to the Power. N128 bn for capital expenditure with N5.4bn allocated for recurrent expenditure.
Ministries of Education and Water Resources received N75 bn and respectively N80 bn.
The Federal government will spend N2.9bn on maintenance of State Villa and N346mn was allocated for the purchase of additional operational vehicles for Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
On the other hand only N8.74mn will be spent on book acquisition for 104 colleges.
N10mn to be spent on infant feeding and N51mn to maternal health.
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N1.5bn was allocated for ambassadors’ entitlement while N176mn will be spent on the purchase of JEEPS for the secretary’s office.
ICT development had an allocation of just N4.5mn.
N500mn was allocated for African First Ladies Peace Mission and a meagre sum of N270mn was voted for the provision of food items for IDPs in 9 constituencies.
N2.3bn will be spent on Entitlement of Former presidents.
Meanwhile, for Agriculture, N96.5mn was voted for human capital development and N103.4mn will be spent on skill acquisition.
N204.4mn was voted for the purchase of equipment in State House medical centre.
However Maternal healthcare that directly affects a high percentage of the population got just N51mn while just N10mn went to infant feeding.
Total of N4.938 trillion (45.7%) was allocated to recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, N2.951 trillion (27.31%) was allotted for debt servicing, while N2.488 trillion (23.03%) is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure in the 2020 revised budget.
As at end May 2020, only N253bn has been disbursed for Capital Projects, according to President Buhari. This represents just 10.17% of the total Capital Expenditure.
The details of the Nigerian 2020 budget show complete misplacement of the priorities of the Nigerian government. Considering that majority of the budget would be funded by debt due to massive decline in government revenue, one wonders how the government plans to repay the debt, since it is spending more on recurrent expenditures.
About BudgIt
Founded in 2011, BudgIT is a civic organization that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change. A pioneer in the field of social advocacy melded with technology, BudgIT uses an array of tech tools to simplify the budget and matters of public spending for citizens, with the primary aim of raising standard of transparency and accountability in government. BudgIT is in constant partnership with civil society, public institutions and the media, chiefly in the areas of fiscal analyses, civic technology and data representation.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
