Buhari presents N16.39trn 2022 budget of ‘economic growth’ to n’assembly

President Muhammadu Buhari has presented an appropriation bill of N16.39 trillion as the total expenditure of the federal government in 2022.

The president laid the appropriation bill christened ‘Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability’ before a joint session of the national assembly on Thursday.

A breakdown of the budget shows that  N768.28 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers, N6.83 trillion for non-debt recurrent costs, N792.39 billion for overhead costs, and N5.35 trillion for capital expenditure.

“We expect the total fiscal operations of the federal government to result in a deficit of N6.26 trillion,” Buhari said.

“This represents 3.39 percent of estimated GDP, slightly above the 3 percent threshold set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007. Countries around the world have to of necessity over-shoot their fiscal thresholds for their economies to survive and thrive.

“We need to exceed this threshold considering our collective desire to continue tackling the existential security challenges facing our country.”

On Wednesday, the national assembly had passed a revised medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) and fiscal strategy paper (FSP) — parameters on which the 2022 budget will be framed.

In the revised MTEF, the president jerked up the total expenditure of the federal government in the 2022 fiscal year to N16.45 trillion.

Buhari had explained that the needed adjustments were important to reflect “the new fiscal terms in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA)”.

In July, the federal executive council (FEC) had approved N13.98 trillion for the proposed 2022 budget before the PIA was passed.

After working on Buhari’s request, the senate committee on finance pegged the federal government’s total expenditure at N16.39 trillion, reducing what the president sent by N60 billion.