THE National Assembly added an addition of N2.25 trillion across 45 ministries, and the presidency to spend in 2024, findings by The ICIR have shown.
The amount in the 2024 approved budget is an increase of 67.63 per cent against the initial N3.33 trillion presented by the president as a proposed budget in November 2023.
In November 2023, President Bola Tinubu presented a budget of N27.5 trillion to the Joint National Assembly of which N8.7 trillion was budgeted as capital expenditure for all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
However, following a review by the National Assembly, the president signed 28.7 trillion as the 2024 appropriation bill into law in January, increasing the capital expenditure of MDAs to N9.99 trillion.
Of this amount, the 45 ministries and the presidency would be spending N5.58 trillion to implement capital projects in the 2024 fiscal year.
In a previous analysis, The ICIR had reported how some institutions’ allocations might be insufficient for critical interventions promised by the President. The analysis showed that some of these promises which include poverty reduction, job creation, women’s inclusion, and development suffered poor allocations by ministries implementing their capital projects.
Our findings on the signed budget showed that the capital expenditure of some of these ministries has been increased. For example, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment’s capital budget was increased by more than 700 per cent from N10.79 billion to N90.69 billion. Also, the Federal Ministry of Youth’s budget was increased by over 300 per cent from N3.22 billion to N14.42 billion and the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology by over 209 per cent from N99.93 billion to N309.36 billion.
Ministries | Proposed Budget | Approved budget percentage | e increase federal |
l Ministry of Labour and Employment | 10,786,961,337 | 90,693,241,499 | 740.77% |
Federal Ministry of Youth | 3,222,760,037 | 14,417,024,381 | 347.35% |
Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology | 99,929,912,264 | 309,355,735,374 | 209.57% |
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation | 59,452,251,714 | 121,223,758,947 | 103.90% |
Federal Ministry of Power | 72,612,496,687 | 146,888,468,670 | 102.29% |
Federal Ministry of Women Affairs | 7,602,142,164 | 12,055,872,258 | 58.59% |
Federal Ministry of Transportation | 61,830,993,664 | 91,175,298,776 | 47.46% |
Ministry of Petroleum Resources | 5,872,270,789 | 8,622,655,505 | 46.84% |
Also, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation budget was increased by 104 per cent to N121.22 billion while the budget for the Federal Ministry of Power by 102 per cent to N146.89 billion.
However, despite the increase in capital expenditure, checks by The ICIR have shown that while some ministries got more than a 200 per cent increase on their previous allocation, the allocation for some ministries remained unchanged.
These ministries are Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (N281.85 million), National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (172.92 million), Fiscal Responsibility Commission (246.08 million), Federal Capital Territory Administration (17.11 billion) and National Population Commission (1.13 billion).
The Program Coordinator, of the Centre for Inclusive Social Development (CISD), Folahan Johnson told The ICIR that issues around budget come from implementation rather than allocation. He said that while the government may have an intention for the increase, the intention can only be judged by the budget performance.
He said, “If you look at the Q3 performance report, what is the performance level of these particular government agencies, both in terms of recurrent expenditure and capital allocation? In scenarios where you have the capital expenditure performing less than 50 per cent, it means that there is no point in increasing capital allocation now because what it means is that there is no significant improvement in the actual performance of those agencies.”
He also noted that increases must be checked based on allocation to line items and the mandate of the ministries as against the intention of the government.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at jameskennyogunyale@gmail or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames | LinkedIn: Kehinde Ogunyale