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From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Federal Government has set aside N6,557,597,611,797 for debt service.
This was contained in the 2023 Appropriation presented to the National Assembly at the weekend by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Whereas Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) got N50,000,000,000, Police Commission and Ministry of Police Affairs got N1,026,626,250 and N813,912,057,660 respectively.
Similarly, Federal Government allocated to the Ministry of Defence N1,248,170,610,116 while N133,730,697,750 was earmarked for the presidency.
Ministry of Works and Housing got N356,031,701,295 whereas Ministry of Power got N239,506,204,145.
For security, the Ministry of Defence got N32,729,171,427 but Nigeria Army got N638,108,156,198 while Nigerian Navy got N158,790,615,193 and Nigeria Air force got N174,423,669,604.
Meanwhile, in his budget speech, at the weekend, Buhari acknowledged that the nation’s debt is within acceptable limits compared to other countries.
“However, our debt position remains within cautious and acceptable limits compared to peer countries. As at the end of June 2022, total public debt is within our self-imposed limit of 40 per cent of Gross Domestic Products (GDP), which is significantly below the 55 per cent international threshold for comparator countries, and a global average of 99 per cent post-COVID-19.
“Nonetheless, our debt-service-to-revenue ratio needs close attention. The current low revenue performance of government, as reflected in the lowly revenue-to-GDP ratio of just about 8 per cent. Our medium-term objective remains to raise this ratio to 15 per cent, at which the debt service to revenue ratio will cease to be a concern.
“Mr. Senate President and Right Honourable Speaker, revenue shortfalls remain the greatest threat to Nigeria’s fiscal viability. We have therefore accelerated efforts towards ensuring that all taxable Nigerians declare income from all sources and pay taxes due to the appropriate authorities. We are also monitoring the internally generated revenues of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure they are appropriately accounted for and remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“The 50 per cent cost-to-income ratio in the Finance Act 2020 has significantly improved operating surplus remittances by Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs). I therefore solicit the continuing co-operation of the National Assembly in enforcing the legal provision and other prudential guidelines imposed on the GOEs during the consideration of the budget proposals of the GOEs.
“I am happy to report that the revenue collection and expenditure management reforms we are implementing are yielding positive results, with recent significant improvements in non-oil revenue performance. However, while we continue to implement revenue administration reforms and improve our collection efficiency, we urgently need to find new ways of generating revenue” he said.
