News Investigators/ The Federal Government says it remains committed to meeting the nation’s debt obligations as N3.12trillion is earmarked for debt service in 2021.
President Muhammadu Buhari made this known when he presented the 2021 budget proposal of N13.08trillion to the National Assembly on Thursday in Abuja.
The amount represents an increase of N445.57billion from the N2.68trillion in 2020.
“We remain committed to meeting our debt service obligations.
“Hence, we have provisioned N3.12trillion for this in 2021, representing an increase of N445.57billion from N2.68trillion in 2020.
“A total of N2.183trillion has been set aside to service domestic debts while N940.89billion has been provided for foreign debt service.
“N220billion is provided for transfers to the Sinking Fund to pay off maturing bonds issued to local contractors and creditors.”
In the proposed budget, N3.85trillion is earmarked for Capital Expenditure.
“An aggregate sum of N3.85trillion is expected to be available for capital projects in 2021.”
These, he said are N1.80trillion for MDAs’ capital expenditure; N745billion for Capital Supplementation; N355billion for Grants and Aid-funded projects and N20billion for the Family Homes Fund.
Others are N25billion for Nigeria Youth Investment fund; N336billion for 60 Government-Owned Enterprises; N247billion for capital component of Statutory Transfers and N710billion for projects funded by Multi-lateral and Bi-lateral loans.
According to the president, the 2021 capital budget is N1.15trillion higher than the 2020 provision of N2.69trillion.
At 29 per cent aggregate expenditure, the provision is close to this administration’s policy target of 30 per cent.
The capital expenditure in 2021 focuses on the completion of as many ongoing projects as possible, rather than the commencement of new ones.
Key capital spending allocations in the 2021 Budget include:
“Power: N198billion (inclusive of N150billion for the Power Sector Recovery Plan); Works and Housing: N404billion; Transportation: N256billion; Defence: N121billion; Agriculture and Rural Development: N110billion; Water Resources: N153billion and Industry, Trade and Investment: N51billion.
Others are: Education: N127billion; Universal Basic Education Commission: N70billion; Health: N132billion; Zonal Intervention Projects: N100billion and Niger Delta Development Commission: N64billion.”
The president said his administration had made efforts to ensure equity in the distribution of projects and programmes in the proposed budget.
“I will be providing the National Assembly a list of some of the most critical projects which we must work collectively to ensure they receive adequate funding.
“Until projects reach completion, they do not deliver the dividends of democracy that Nigerians rightly deserve.”
For Recurrent Expenditure, N5.65trillion has been earmarked for Non-debt Recurrent Cost, N3.76trillion for Personnel Cost and N501.19billion will be expended on Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees’ benefits.
According to the president, the total overhead costs of MDAs and Government Owned Enterprises are projected to rise to N625.50billion in 2021.
This is mainly due to the inclusion of the overheads of an additional 50 Government-Owned Enterprises.
“Overhead provisions have also been made for newly created agencies.
“To keep a tab on running costs, MDAs must adhere to extant expenditure controls,” President Buhari said. (NAN)
