President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the 29th of November 2023, presented the 2024 budget before the joint session of the National Assembly. The budget is the largest in Nigeria’s history with a size of N27.5 trillion and a revenue projection of N18.32 trillion resulting in a budget deficit of N9.18 trillion. Revenue comprises oil revenue of N7.69 trillion, non-oil revenue of N3.52 trillion and Independent and other revenue sources of N6.86 trillion. The expenditure consists of capital expenditure of N8.72 trillion, non-debt recurrent expenditure of N9.92 trillion, debt service of N8.49 trillion and statutory transfer of
N1.38 trillion. These estimates imply that debt service is 30% of total expenditure and 95% of capital expenditure.
December 23, 2023
Nigeria Economic Update Issue 48
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 5)
The Naira continued to depreciate in the
review week. At the parallel market, naira exchanged for N498/$ on January 27,
2017 and N500/$ on February 3, 2017. Despite the weekly sales of forex to BDCs and
the significant improvements in the external reserves, the naira has continued
to lose value to other currencies. The pressure on the naira has been triggered
by escalating scarcity of forex in the spot market, likely due to
forex hoarding. However, in the preceding week, the CBN sold $660 million in forwards
contract in an attempt to manage liquidity and stabilize the naira.
In the face of growing speculation in the parallel market, the monetary
authority should institute mechanisms that would discourage excessive forex
hoarding among licensed BDC operators. An initiative that monitors transaction
dealings in the parallel market would go a long way in detecting erring BDC
operators.