THE Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Friday gave a breakdown of the 2022 budget estimates, showing that defence and security, infrastructure, education and health have the lion share of allocation for the fiscal year.
President Muhammadu Buhari has on Thursday presented the appropriation bill of N16.39 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.
From the breakdown given by the minister, defence and security received N2.41 trillion (15 per cent); infrastructure N1.45 trillion (8.9%); education N1.29 trillion (7.9 per cent); health N820 billion (5 per cent) and Social Development and Poverty Eradication N863 billion (5.3 per cent) of the entire allocation.
She also said that over N292.7 billion provision is made in the 2022 budget to offset accumulated arrears of contractual obligations dating back to a decade.
Ahmed said the 2022 budget has “provision to retire maturing bonds to local contractors/suppliers of N292.7 billion which is 1.79 percent of the total expenditure”. In breaking down the budget, Ahmed explained that, “the projected aggregate revenue available to fund the 2022 budget of N10.13 trillion is 24 per cent higher than the 2021 projection of N8. 12 trillion.
“To promote fiscal transparency, accountability and comprehensive, allocations to TETFUND and the budgets of 60 GOEs are integrated in the FGN’s 2022 budget proposal.
“In aggregate, 34.9 percent of revenues is to come from oil-related sources while 65.1 percent is be earned from non-oil sources.
“The 2022 aggregate FGN Expenditure (inclusive of GOEs and project-tied loans) is projected to be N16.39 trillion, which is 12.2 per cent higher than the initial 2022 MTFF”.
Ahmed said the, “recurrent (non debt) spending, estimate to amount to N6. 83 trillion, is 41.7 per cent of the total expenditure, and 18.5 per cent higher than the 2021 budget.
“Aggregate Capital Expenditure of N5.35 trillion is 32.7 per cent of total expenditure. The provision is inclusive of Capital component of Statutory Transfer, GOEs Capital and project-tied loans expenditures.
“At 3.61trillion, debt service is 22 per cent of the total expenditure, and 35.6 per cent of the total revenue,” she stated. N16.39 trillion is proposed as budget for 2022, Statutory Transfer stands at N768 billion, Deficit, N6.26 trillion, sinking funds, N293 billion, retained revenue of N1.728 trillion, independent revenue of N1.816 trillion and taxes, N2.132 trillion.