How FG will fund N10.78tr budget deficit– Minister

Minister of Finance Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed

The Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning yesterday revealed how it will fund the N10.78trillion 2023 budget deficit.

The N20.51 trillion budget is to be financed with a total revenue of N9.73 trillion in 2023, with a hint that it may borrow more the balance.

The minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, at the public presentation of the breakdown and highlights of the 2023 budget proposal, said the overall budget deficit of N10.78 trillion for 2023 will largely be financed through domestic loans.

She said that the budget deficit will be financed mainly by borrowings including domestic sources, N7.04 trillion; foreign sources, N1.76 trillion; multilateral and bi-lateral loan drawdowns, N1.77 billion and expected N206.18 billion proceeds from privatization of national assets.

“There is a continuing need to exceed this threshold considering the existential security challenges facing the country,” Ahmed said.

The minister said Nigeria has no plan to restructure its debt as government remains committed to meeting its domestic and external debt obligations.

According to her, government will continue to utilize appropriate debt management tools to streamline the cost and risk profile in the debt portfolio, including through concessional loans, spreading out of debt maturities to avoid bunching, and re-profiling of the debt maturities by refinancing short-term debt using long-term debt instruments.

She explained that total revenue available to fund the 2023 FGN Budget is estimated at N9.73 trillion. This includes the gross revenues of 63 Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) totalling N3.48 trillion. Of this, Federal government oil revenue share is projected at N1.92 trillion, non-oil taxes are estimated at N2.43 trillion, and independent revenues are projected to be N2.21 trillion. Other revenues total N762 billion. The GOEs will remit N1.06 trillion to federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, and retain N2.42 trillion for their expenditures and reserves.