The President said new borrowings are inevitable to fund the budget deficit in keeping with the trend before he assumed office
The N9.18 trillion deficit for the proposed 2024 budget will be financed using a N7.83 trillion fresh loan to be taken by the federal government, says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The federal government will also use multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific projects and privatisation proceeds of N22 billion to fund the deficits.
Tinubu disclosed this on Wednesday while presenting the 2024 budget to the National Assembly.
According to him, this is despite the effort to guarantee broad-based and shared economic prosperity in the country despite the harsh global economic realities and restrictive monetary policies in major economies.
The president, in his speech, noted that “the 2024 debt service is projected downward to N8.25 trillion, with a capital expenditure of N8.7 trillion, as Nigeria remains committed to fulfilling its debt obligations.”
“Projected debt service is 45 per cent of the expected total revenue. The budget deficit is projected at N9.18 trillion in 2024 or 3.88 percent of the GDP.”
Tinubu observed that the proposed budget deficit is lower than the N13.7 trillion deficit recorded in 2023.
“The 2023 deficit represents 6.11 per cent of the GDP. The budget deficit will be financed by new borrowing totalling N7.83 trillion, strategically with N22 billion from privatisation proceeds and N1.05 trillion drop-down multilateral and bi-lateral loans secured for specific projects.”
