Continuous Borrowing To Fund 2022 Budget Worrisome – NdumeSenator Ali Ndume

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, has described as worrisome, the decision of the federal government to borrow more funds to finance the 2022 budget.

Africa Today News, New York had earlier reported that Nigeria’s next year’s budget of ₦16.39 trillion as presented by President Muhammadu Buhari has a deficit of ₦6.26 trillion.

Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, also reiterated that the government would source more loans to fund the deficit.

However, Senator Ndume, in a statement on Saturday, stressed that the government’s proposal to finance the budget by borrowing more is worrisome.

He, instead, advised the executive to cut down personal and recurrent costs; increase revenues and plug all leakages.

Read Also: Budget: Buhari Borrowing ₦5.01 Trillion To Service Stolen Funds

The estimated budget for recurrent expenditure for the projected year, which is ₦6.83 trillion, represented 41.7% of total expenditure budget.

‘This is still on the high side,’ Ndume said.

He also advised that the ‘Presidential Economic Advisory Committee and finance experts should be actively involved in the debt management and re-evaluation of our debt profile.’

The Borno South senator, however, commended Buhari for prioritising spending on defence & security, infrastructure, and education with the sectors getting a combined N5.15 trillion allocation in the 2022 Budget.

From the proposal, defence and security got ₦2.41 trillion (15%); infrastructure ₦1.45 trillion (8.9%); education ₦1.29 trillion (7.9%); health ₦820 billion (5%) and Social Development and Poverty Eradication ₦863 billion (5.3%) of the entire allocation.

Ndume urged the president to pay more attention to the effective, transparent, and accountable implementation of the budget by the MDAs when passed so that the impact will be visible to Nigerians.

‘The National Assembly should also be more active in the discharge of its oversight function to ensure effective implementation of the budget,’ he added.

AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK