FG May Consider 2023 Budget Increase, Says Wale Edun

The Minister Of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun, says the Federal Government may return to the National Assembly for appropriation of extra revenue for the 2024 budget if the country records a solid revenue performance next year.

The minister made this known on Monday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance to defend his ministry’s budget.

Edun affirmed that the Federal Government will rely on savings to boost availability of funds to finance the 2024 budget, while also indicating that the Federal Government might consider a budget increase.

During his appearance on Monday, the Senate urged the finance minister to remove bottlenecks in delays in implementation of the budget when passed.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee, Sani Musa, also expressed concerns over the government’s inability to hasten implementation of the 2023 supplementary budget.

On November 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu presented his maiden budget estimates of N27.5trn for the year 2024 to the National Assembly.

Giving a breakdown of the budget estimates, the President fixed recurrent non-debit expenditure at N9.92trn, capital expenditure at N8.73trn, debt service at N8.25trn, revenue at N18.32trn, new borrowings at N7.83trn and deficit at N9.18trn.

According to the President, the economy is expected to grow by 3.76%, while “inflation is expected to moderate to 21.4 percent in 2024”.