The Federal Executive Council has approved the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper with N12.66tn budget projection for each of the three fiscal years.
The approval was given at a virtual meeting of the council presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clement Agba, briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
Agba listed other projections in the budget to include $40 per barrel oil benchmark, oil production volume of 1.6 million barrel per day, inflation rate of 11.9 per cent, projected gross domestic growth rate of three per cent and revenue target of N7.5tn.
On projected revenue for 2021, the minister said, “I spoke of the various assumptions that have been made in terms of parameters and those assumptions are what drive revenues that we get and in terms of how you are able to reflate the economy and spend.
“For Nigeria, it was projected that by the end of this year, we should have the GDP top at -4.42 per cent.
“However, with the stimulus if properly done and executed, we expect that the GDP will improve to about negative -1.8 per cent.
“So, in terms of the revenue projection, for 2020 it was N5.84tn but for 2021 we expect that it will be N7.5tn.
“Though the oil production is much lower than our capacity, because we are restricted by the OPEC Plus quota in order to get the prices at par, we have brought in 63 Government Owned Enterprises.
“We are bringing them into the budget order to be able to shore up the budget by additional N2.17tn; hence we are saying we are projecting a larger budget size for 2021 over and above the N10.84tn for the revised 2020 budget.
“When you look at the N7.5tn and the expectations to spend N12tn; yes, definitely there will be gap and that gap has to be financed.”
The minister said just as it was in the 2020 budget, there were pro visions to repay debt in 2021.
He explained that with a sinking fund, the government would look at the ratio and ensure that it was able to pay its debts.
The minister said that was why the government has the Debt Management Office to advise it on issues of borrowing and debt servicing.