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By Chukwuma Umeorah
The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Festus Osifo, has criticised the proposed N47.9 trillion budget for 2025, describing it as insufficient to address the country’s pressing economic and infrastructural challenges.
Speaking during the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of PENGASSAN in Lagos on Thursday, Osifo argued that the budget, amounting to approximately $30 billion, falls significantly short of the needs of a nation with over 230 million people.
Osifo stressed that the effect of devaluation had eroded the real value of Nigerian currency. “Although the 2024 budget of N27 trillion was smaller, but the real value of that was quite higher in dollar terms.
The proposed 2025 budget is very low for us as a country. When you compare this with South Africa, a country with just 60 million people and a budget exceeding $120 billion, it becomes clear how far behind we are,”.
He called for a substantial increase in the country’s budget size to reflect its potential and resource endowment. “As a country blessed with human and material resources, we should be talking about a budget size of at least $200 billion. This requires harnessing our mineral wealth which included bitumen, tin, gold, and limestone, not just for export but for value addition that generates revenue and jobs,”.
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Osifo emphasised the inadequacy of the proposed budget in tackling Nigeria’s infrastructure deficits, citing a previous study on the nation’s road network. “A study conducted under a former Minister of Works revealed that fixing federal roads alone would require $120 billion.
If you allocate the entire $30 billion budget to roads, it would still take four years to complete the task. How then can we address other critical sectors like education, healthcare, and salaries?”
Beyond the budget size, Osifo highlighted Nigeria’s mounting debt burden, warning of its dire economic implications. He noted that over 90 per cent of the country’s revenue is currently spent on servicing debt. “This is not sustainable,” he said. “They tell us that our debt-to-GDP ratio is manageable, but the real concern is debt-to-revenue. No country can make meaningful progress while spending about 90 per cent of its income on debt servicing,”.He also expressed concern about the frequency of national grid collapses, describing it as a significant setback to Nigeria’s development. “In 2024 alone, the grid collapsed more than 12 times, and 2025 has already recorded its first collapse.
This is unacceptable for a country with such abundant human and material resources. The government must prioritize fixing the power sector with competent personnel.”
Osifo urged the government to act swiftly in addressing these issues to set the country on a path of sustainable growth and development. “We must move beyond rhetoric and take decisive action to expand our revenue base, improve infrastructure, and ensure value addition to our vast resources,” he urged.
