Nigeria is facing worse economic issues than expected as its revenue projection in the 2024 budget underperformed by 56.13 per cent, a member of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee has said.
NewsNGR can report that the MPC member further decried that over 18 million Nigerians are faced with food insecurity.
A member of the CBN Policy Committee who is also a non-resident senior fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings, Aloysius Uche Ordu disclosed these in his personal statement at the 296th meeting.
In July, the apex bank raised the monetary policy rate by 50 basis points to 26.75 per cent with the clear intention to moderate inflation, which hit 34.2 per cent in June.
Beyond the inflation, the MPC member raised the alarm that government revenues are not flowing in as expected.
President Bola Tinubu’s government got the approval of the National Assembly to adjust the 2024 budget upward to N35.05tn, a rise from N28.7tn.
A breakdown showed that the addition of N3.2tn was for infrastructure projects and N3tn for recurrent expenditure.
In the earlier approved N28.7tn budget, the government projected a revenue of N19.59tn.
Ordu said, “The federal government’s budget data, for the period January to April,
showed that revenues underperformed by 56.13 per cent vis-à-vis projections,
and actual spending was 38.60 per cent below budget.
“These are worrisome numbers given the country’s enormous development needs – poverty has increased with over 18 million Nigerians estimated as food insecure by the IMF, unemployment is high, human development indicators are below comparators, and deficiencies abound in the number and quality of infrastructure.
“Meanwhile, public debt grew from N97.34 trillion in Q4 2023 to N121.67tn in Q1 2024.”
He lamented that high food and fuel prices have driven an “acute and prolonged cost-of-living crisis in which millions of Nigerians are struggling.”