Ministry expresses resentment over passed 2011 budget

Ministry expresses resentment over passed 2011 budget
Hauwa Noroh Ali, Abuja
     

Nigeria’s minister of National Planning Commission (NPC), Shamsuddeen Usman, became the third top government official to publicly reject the budget passed recently by the National Assembly, insisting that the spending plan, if assented to, will jeopardise the Vision 20-2020 objectives.

The 2011 Budget

Speaking at the Public presentation of the first National Implementation Plan (NIP) of Vision 2020 to stakeholders, Mallam Usman said the 2011 spending plan does not align with the Vision’s implementation plan, particularly with the over 2.47 trillion Naira voted for recurrent expenditure and only 1.56 trillion Naira for capital projects.

Resentments

The minister of finance had last week expressed deep reservations about the plan which contains more allocations for consumption and less for investment in capital projects.

The Monetary Policy Committee had also responded to the spending plan with a 100 basis-point increase in benchmark rates to 7.5 percent from 6.5 percent, raising the prospect of a presidential veto.

Mallam Usman said if the present budgetary trend continues, not much will be left from government to fund those development projects contained in the Vision document.

“Clearly, as you have seen, the way we have divided our projects, the federal government is expected to contribute about 10 trillion Naira of investment, the States Nine trillion Naira and the private sector 13 trillion Naira.“ This means that the more that the federal government puts into recurrent and the less into capital, the less the investment that is needed to achieve the Vision. Clearly, there has to be a greater focus in terms of spending on investments rather than on consumption. That is a clear message,” he said

Process review 

He however noted that government was making efforts to restructure the budgetary process and has set up a committee to review and further advice on the whole budgetary reform.

In his words, “the committee is about to finish its job and submit its report to the government. Obviously, this will come in quite handy and stated that the other tiers of government have also been given the encouragement to align with this approach, so that the budgeting process can engender sustainable development and, by extension, increase citizens’ welfare.”

Mallam Usman further emphasised the need for effective planning, saying that sustainable economic growth and development are not achieved on a platter of gold but on a carefully thought-out, strategic planning basis.

Vision 20-2020

Vision 20-2020, which seeks to position Nigeria as one of the top 20 economies in the next nine years, is to be implemented through three medium-term development plans.

 Vision 20-2020 has been projected to involve massive investments especially in infrastructure, and according to the minister, the government has directed that the annual budget would be the instrument for the implementation of the National Implementation Plan (NIP), beginning from the 2010 fiscal year, with About 32 trillion Naira has being proposed to finance the Vision’s first implementation plan alone, spanning from 2010 to 2013.

The NIP 2010-2013 represents the first implementation plan for the actualisation of the Vision, which is expected to lay a solid foundation for the entire process, with the first NIP being anchored on two specific economic targets expected to be achieved by 2013. It is also set to achieve a GDP of not less than 440 billion dollars and a per capita income of not less than 2,008 dollars.

The Federal Government is expected to contribute 10 trillion; States and local councils – Nine trillion Naira investments, while the private sector will bring in some 13 trillion Naira.

Williams