The federal government has proposed N292.7 billion to retire maturing bonds to local contractors/suppliers of government.
This represents 1.79 per cent of total expenditure.
Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning Mrs Zainab Ahmed made this disclosure at her 2022 budget breakdown in Abuja.
She said the move is aimed at settling the government’s obligations to contractors and suppliers in line with the FGN’s commitment to offset accumulated arrears of contractual obligations dating back over a decade.
The Minister also said the federal government has proposed to spend N3.61trillion on debt service in the coming years which is 22 per cent of total expenditure, and 35.6 per cent of total revenues.
She, however, added that the early passage of the 2022 Budget for implementation from January 1 “will significantly contribute towards achieving government macro-fiscal and sectoral objectives.
She, however, noted that revenue currently remains our main fiscal challenge.
To this end, the government she said has kicked off efforts aimed at addressing revenue leakages which include: concluding the service-wide implementation of IPPIS; dimensioning cost of tax waivers and promoting policy dialogue and transparency around tax waiver regimes; elimination of regressive subsidies on petrol price and electricity tariffs, as well as a cost-to-income-ratio cap for Government-Owned Enterprises with a view to improving remittances to FGN’s coffers.
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The finance minister revealed that as at August, 2021, the federal government has “surpassed all collections for FGN independent revenues from 2017 to date.
“This reflects the performance of our revenue growth initiatives for this revenue stream,” she said.
At this current run rate, Ahmed expressed optimism that the government is “now firmly positioned to surpass the 1trillion mark collection for independent revenues”, adding that government has the potentials to grow independent revenues.
Meanwhile, in 2022, the education Sector will receive a total of N1,290.03 billion that is 7.9 per cent of FGN Budget. Of this amount N875.93.85 billion had been provisioned for the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies for recurrent and capital expenditure.
N108.10 billion had been provisioned for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC); N306.00 billion will be transferred to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for infrastructure projects in Tertiary institutions.
N1.2billion will be for classroom/hostel rehabilitation and furnishing and N500 million allocated for provision of Security Infrastructure in 104 Colleges; N392 million will be set aside as take-off grant for the establishment of six Federal Science and Technical Colleges (FSTCs); about N4.5 billion will be used to fund various Scholarship allowances and N2 billion will be for the payment of 5,000 Federal Teachers Scheme Allowance.
The Health Sector will receive N820.2 billion that is five percent of total FGN Budget: N711.28 billion has been provisioned for Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies for Recurrent and Capital expenditure, including Hazard Allowance).
N54.87 billion will be for Gavi/Immunization funds, including Counterpart Funding for Donor Supported Programmes, Including Global Fund. N54.05 billion will be transferred to Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) representing one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
N3.12 billion will be spent on Polio Eradication Initiatives; N1.5 billion will be for the procurement of RI & non-Polio Vaccines and operational costs while N2.66 billion has been earmarked for expanded midwives service scheme.
For Defence and Security Sector N2.41trillion or 15 per cent of the budget has been provisioned for the Military, Police, Intelligence and Para-Miltary for their Recurrent and Capital expenditure.
Still, on defence, N22.08 billion will be spent as balance payment for procurement of 3 X JF.
