Nigeria Government Releases N1.3trillion To Finance Capital Budget

The federal government has released N1.3 trillion to fund part of the 2021 capital expenditure budget of its Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.

Disclosing this yesterday at the 2022 budget preparation training session in Lagos, Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said the amount represents 63.5 percent of capital budget of the year, adding that the government is committed to fully funding the 2021 capital budget.

He stated: “MDAs have been told in the recently released budget circular that they should expect to receive full funding for their 2021 capital budget.”

The budget training is based on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System – Budget Preparation Sub-System (GIFMIS/BPS).

Akabueze noted that the budget office would be training over 4,000 fiscal policy executives involved in budget preparation from about 900 MDAs in Lagos and Abuja in physical sessions and virtually for other zones due to the prevailing challenges associated with the COVID pandemic and security concerns in some regions.

He said: “The main goal of this training is to provide continuous learning to equip budget personnel with the requisite knowledge, skills and the tools they require to prepare and submit the 2022 budget in a timely manner. The budget is also intended to be in tandem with extant FGN policies and guidelines as articulated in the 2022 FGN Budget Call Circular and other relevant laws/policies.”

He also said that for the economy to achieve the desired growth, the government needs more revenue and such revenue can be gotten from income taxes.