FG Borrowed N882bn To Finance 2015 Budget
Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja[/caption]
The Ministry of Finance, on Wednesday, disclosed that the Federal Government has so far borrowed N882.122 billion to finance the N4.4 trillion 2015 budget.
The Permanent Secretary, Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, represented by the Director-General of the Budget Office, Aliyu Yahya Gusau, who revealed this at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives on Non-implementation of Capital Projects in the 2015 budget, said the sum comprises of N505.122 billion in domestic borrowings and N380 billion in external borrowings which have been disbursed to the country’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) Account.
Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, noted that despite the on-going cash crunch, the ministry continued to obtain fiscal policies to grow the economy.
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The permanent secretary said that the policies include measures to transform the economy, promote fiscal discipline, and improve non-oil revenue generation amongst other measures toward improving the well-being of Nigerians.
She said that the N380 billion appropriated for external borrowing had been funded through the domestic bond market, adding that the borrowings followed the drastic decline in the country’s revenue gap due to fall in oil prices.
Speaking on the revenue performance, Daniel-Nwaobia noted that out of N3.45 trillion that was appropriated, only N1.74 trillion has been realised as at September. On the expenditure performance Daniel-Nwaobia stated that out of the N1.83 trillion budgeted for personnel cost in the recurrent budget, N944.76 billion had so far been released as at the second quarter of 2015 and N1.24 trillion as at August 2015.
For overhead, with a budget of N177.60 billion, N89.88 billion has been released as at May 2015. On statutory transfer of the N375.62 billion budgeted, N187.81 billion has been released as at the second quarter and N250.41billion as at August 2015.
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She added that N149.92 billion was released from the N231. 41 billion budgeted for pensions as at August 2015.
For debt service, out of the N953.62 billion budgeted, N782. 57 billion (82.1 per cent) has been paid as at the end of August 2015. She said that N14.713 billion, representing 70 per cent of the N21. 03 billion provisions for the implementation of the SURE-P, had been released.
