The Kaduna State Government will adhere to the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) recommendations in the formulation of its 2023 budget.
Mr Bashir Muhammad, Permanent Secretary, Planning and Budget Commission (PBC) stated this in Kaduna, during an interactive session with private sector, women groups and people living with disabilities on 2023 to 2025 MTEF.
According to him, the measure is to ensure a realistic budget for the 2023 fiscal year, where expected revenues will be generated to implement plant programmes and projects
“The 2023 budget estimates will be based on the MTEF document, as it has greater macroeconomic balance and budgetary predictability for state’s efficient use of public finances.
“The MTEF document also aims at improving sectoral resource allocation by effectively prioritising all expenditures, based on the state’s socio-economic programmes as it has historically provided more realistic estimates,” Muhammad said.
He described MTEF as a “vital requirement” of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, 2016, which aimed at strengthening the public financial management systems to ensure transparency, accountability, and improvement of service delivery to citizens.
He acknowledged that each year, the MTEF has provided a more realistic estimate of revenues than the annual budget.
The permanent secretary said that in 2018, the MTEF projected a N190.4 billion and N126.4 billion was realised and N137.7 billion projected in 2019 but N220.8 billion realised.
He added that in 2020, N178.9 billion was projected and N190.4 billion was realised while N214.2 billion was projected in 2021 and N198.1 billion realised.
He said that the MTEF recommended a budget size of N238.2 billion for 2023 with expected recurrent expenditure of N103 billion and capital expenditure of N134.8.
He disclosed that the 2023 to 2025 MTEF was prepared based on the assumptions of 13.1 per cent national inflation rate, 3.1 national real GDP growth, and 1.8 million barrel per day oil benchmark.
Other assumptions, according to him, include N410.2 exchange rate to the US dollar, and 21 per cent mineral ratio.
Also, speaking, the Director Budget, PBC, Mr Idris Suleiman explained that the engagement was for the citizens groups to have a look at the MTEF documents, make inputs before it would be finalised.
This, according to him, is part of citizens’ engagement in the budgeting process in line with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) principles of co-creation and co-implementation of plan and programmes.
On the 2022 budget performance, Suleiman said that the state has generated a total of N78.6 billion at the end of first quarter and expended N57.9 billion.
“This represents 28.2 per cent of revenue performance and 20.8 per cent budget performance respectively against the 2022 approved budget,” he said.
Mr Joshua James, Citizen’s Co-chair, OGP Technical Working Group on Open Budget, commended the state government for sustaining citizens engagement in the budgeting process.
According to him, engaging the MTEF provides an opportunity for the citizens to make significant influence on the 2023 budget.
Mr Abel Adejor, State Lead Facilitator, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), a governance programme urged citizens groups to make the best use of the opportunity to engage in the budgeting process.
Adejor said that PERL would continue to support the creation of a platform for citizens to engage in the formulation, implementation of the budget through tracking and monitoring the delivery of government programmes and projects.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) MTEF is a tool for planning government revenue and expenditures for more than a year (usually three years) before preparing the budget.
The MTEF helps government plan a realistic budget in order to realistically implement what it promised them.
The key determinants are the growth rate of the economy, inflation, internally generated revenue, exchange rate and oil bench mark. (NAN)