The federal government says it will spend N8.25 trillion on debt servicing in the N27.5 trillion 2024 budget, projecting that the economy will grow by 3.76 percent.
President Bola Tinubu disclosed this while presenting the proposed budget for 2024 to the joint session of the national assembly on Wednesday.
The president said the budget will cement macroeconomic stability, reduce the deficit, and increase capital spending and allocation to reflect the eight priority areas of this administration.
Tinubu said a stable macroeconomic environment is important to catalyse private investment and accelerate economic growth.
“We have and shall continue to implement business and investment friendly measures for sustainable growth,” he said.
“We expect the economy to grow by a minimum of 3.76 percent, above the forecasted world average. Inflation is expected to moderate to 21.4 percent in 2024.
“In preparing the 2024 Budget, our primary objective has been to sustain our robust foundation for sustainable economic development. A critical focus of this budget and the medium term expenditure framework is Nigeria’s commitment to a greener future.”
Last week, the Senate and the House of Representatives approved the 2024-2026 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) and fiscal strategy paper (FSP) — parameters on which the 2024 budget will be framed.
Speaking on the key parameters of the 2024 budget, Tinubu said the government has adopted “a conservative oil price benchmark of 96 US Dollars” per barrel and a daily oil production estimate of 1.78 million barrels per day.
This, according to the president, followed a careful review of developments in the global oil market and domestic conditions.
“We have also adopted a Naira to US Dollar exchange rate of 750 naira per US Dollar for 2024,” he said.
“Accordingly, an aggregate expenditure of 5 trillion naira is proposed for the Federal Government in 2024, of which the non-debt recurrent expenditure is 9.92 trillion naira while debt service is projected to be 8.25 trillion naira and capital expenditure is 8.7 trillion naira.
“Nigeria remains committed to meeting its debt obligations. Projected debt service is 45 percent of the expected total revenue.”
On November 27, the federal executive council (FEC) approved N27.5 trillion proposed for the 2024 budget.