2020 Budget: FG Spent N2.37tn To Pay Salaries, Others In Q1

Out of the N10.59tn 2020 budget which was initially approved by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, the sum of N2.37tn had been spent between January and March this year.

The 2020 budget which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 17 had a projection of N7.2tn for recurrent expenditure while capital expenditure was put at N1.94tn for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government.

The projections in the 2020 budget had been revised by the National Assembly to take care of the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the economy.

The National Assembly had last week raised the budget size from the initial N10.59tn to N10.8tn as a result of the need to accommodate more expenditure to tackle the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Before the revision, the Federal Government had projected to spend N560.47bn for statutory transfer, N538.72bn for gratuities and service wide pension, and N302.43bn for overheads.

Also, the sum of N396.23bn was being planned to be spent on other service wide votes, N65bn for presidential amnesty programme and N350bn for special intervention programmes.

There was also plan to spend N2.72tn on debt servicing; while fiscal deficit was estimated at N2.28trn.

Figures obtained from the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning showed that out of the N560.47bn allocated for statutory transfer, the government had spent N140.12bn as of March this year.

Similarly, out of the N2.83tn budgeted for personnel costs, the sum of N729.56bn had been released for the payment of salaries.

Also, from the service wide pension budget of N538.72bn, about N90.54bn had been released while N79.67bn had also been spent on overheads out of the budgeted amount of N302.43bn.

Further analysis of the figures from the ministry of finance showed that N80.32bn had been spent on service wide votes out of the budgeted amount of N396.23bn, while N10.83bn had been released from the presidential amnesty budget of N65bn.

In the same vein, the government had released N156.38bn for payment from special account while capital the amount released for capital expenditure was put at N139.7bn out of the N1.94tn voted for capital projects.

Before the revision of the budget, the Federal Government had allocated N116.18bn for capital projects in the Ministry of Defence; Ministry of Foreign Affairs had N7.6bn; Ministry of Information and Culture, N7.55bn; Ministry of Interior, N34.03bn; Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, N1.72bn; Ministry of Police Affairs, N15.95bn; Ministry of Communication Technology, N5.91bn; and Office of the National Security Adviser, N27.41bn

Others are Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N25.18bn; Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, N2.15bn; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, N124.39bn; Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, N4.97bn; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, N38.58bn; Ministry of Labour and Employment, N24.44bn; Ministry of Science and Technology, N62.88bn; Ministry of Transport, N121.36bn; and Federal Ministry of Aviation, N52.06bn.

Also, for the 2020 fiscal year, the Ministry of Power had an allocation of N129.08bn; Ministry of Petroleum Resources, N3.33bn; Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, N10.43bn; Ministry of Works and Housing, N315.56bn; Ministry of Water Resources, N91.67bn; Ministry of Justice, N3.85bn; Federal Capital Territory Administration, N62.40bn; and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N23.12bn.

There is also Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, N3.73bn; Ministry of Women Affairs, N6.65bn; Ministry of Education, N84.72bn; Ministry of Health, N59.9bn; Ministry of Environment, N12.35bn; and Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, N61.08bn