BEVERLY HILLS, CA, December 19, (THEWILL) – President Goodluck Jonathan through a proxy on Thursday formally presented the 2014 fiscal year budget estimate of N4.6 trillion separately to the two chambers of the National Assembly.
The estimate showed a drop as against the N4.7 trillion that was budgeted in 2013.
Of the budget estimate, the Federal Government is to spend N1.1 trillion for capital expenditure, while N3.7 trillion is expected to come from the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
President Jonathan who was represented by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, did not give details of the budget and the amount for the recurrent expenditure as he only laid the well packed budget proposal on the floor of the Senate.
Speaking to journalists after laying the budget estimate, Okonjo-Iweala said the aggregate expenditure of N4.6 trillion excluded the Subsidy Reinvestment Expenditure Programme- SURE-P.
“I felt very privileged, it’s an honour that Mr President has asked me to carry out this task in conjunction with my colleagues in the cabinet, and of course, the Director General of the Budget office supported me to do this great honour.
“This budget is the budget for job creation and inclusive growth meaning that it’s a budget which will continue the president’s transformation agenda for several sectors of the economy. The budget is going to support the push in agriculture.
“It will kick start the housing sector where we can create more jobs, it is designed to our policies that would support manufacturing because jobs would be created there. Industries will also be created in solid minerals. All these support will continue to be unleashed. Job creation is the key to really solving the problems of the Nigerian economy.
“Aggregate expenditure excluding SURE – P funds is about N4.6 trillion and the revenue is about N3.73 trillion. The capital is about N1.1 trillion and makes up about 27 percent of the budget, the balances of course is the recurrent, it is about 72 percent of the budget.”
The Minister explained that the distinguishing feature between the 2013 budget and that of the 2014 budget was the focus the government had in continuation of the 2013 budget especially on the area of job creation for the youths and promised that the government was not going to relent in pushing forward.
She said, “All the programmes that create jobs are very well supported, the SURE – P is also part of it, community services programmes would be pushed, the You Win programme would be pushed.”
The Minister further said that the government would pursue vigorously infrastructural development.
“The infrastructure development is part of it, the Hon Minister of Transport is here, we have been working on rail development. Ministry of Niger Delta is also part of the infrastructure development, Water resources, FCT development and so on.
“We have privatised power but we will be working on the transmission to direct resources there. The distinguishing thing is that it’s a continuation of what we have done before but with more emphasis on really pushing out jobs and also supporting safety nets that can further redistribute income to poor people in the country.”
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