December 18, 2024
President Bola Tinubu has, today, presented a 2025 budget estimate of N47.9 trn to a joint session of the National Assembly (NASS).
Lawmakers from the House of Representatives and the Senate were seated on Wednesday as the President presented his second budget proposal to the joint session.
Tinubu was accompanied to the presentation by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume; the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila; among other top government officials.
The presentation was expected to take place on Tuesday but that was moved to Wednesday after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) held on Monday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
That same day, FEC approved the budget estimate for the year 2025.
According to the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, the 2025 expenditure is projected at forty-seven trillion nine hundred sixty billion naira, which is an increase of 36.8 per cent from the 2024 estimate.
Bagudu said the 2025 Appropriation Bill is pegged on an oil price benchmark of $75 per barrel, oil production of 2.06 million barrels per day, and an exchange rate of N1,400 to a dollar.
Inflation
Meanwhile,
President Bola Tinubu says the 2025 budget forecasts that inflation will decline from current 34.6% to 15% next year.
He said this during his presentation of the N47.9 trillion 2025 budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The President also said that the exchange rate will improve from approximately N1,700 per dollar to N1,500.
According to Tinubu, “this is an ambitious but necessary budget to secure our future.”
“The Budget projects inflation will decline from the current rate of 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent next year, while the exchange rate will improve from approximately 1,700 naira per US dollar to 1,500 naira, and a base crude oil production assumption of 2.06 million barrels per day,”Tinubu said.
He said the budget projections are based upon observations such as reduction of petroleum products importation, increased export of finished petroleum products, bumper harvest driven by enhanced security, reducing reliance on food imports, among others.
Tinubu listed highlights of the budget to include defence and security – N4.91tn, infrastructure – N4.06tn, health – N2.4tn, education – N3.5tn, among others.
Nigerians are grappling with economic hardship following incessant increase in inflation and volatile exchange rate that has seen dollar exchange as high as N1,700 in recent days.
On Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose to 34.60% in November 2024 from 33.88% in October 2024.
The November inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72% points compared to the October 2024 inflation rate, according to NBS’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.
“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 6.40% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (28.20%). This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in November 2024 compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., November 2023),” the Bureau said.
Significantly, food inflation rate in November 2024 was 39.93% on a year-on-year basis, 7.08% points higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (32.84%).
#MemoriesNews