President Muhammadu Buhari on 1st Day of 2021

Yesterday, I assented to the 2021 Appropriation Act and the Finance Act 2020. The 2021 Budget provides for aggregate expenditures of 13.588 Trillion Naira, representing an increase of 505.61 Billion Naira over the initial Executive proposal.

The increase however includes the 365 billion Naira provision for up-scaling the National Social Investments Programme of Nigeria, which I requested for after laying the Budget before the Legislature. The budget details, as passed by the National Assembly, and signed into law by me, will be provided by Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

In designing the 2021 Budget, we deliberately chose to pursue an expansionary fiscal policy. We intend to use the Budget to accelerate our economic recovery process, promote social inclusion and strengthen the resilience of the economy.

Let me share a brief assessment of the 2020 Budget. In spite of the adverse impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Nigeria’s economy and the Government’s revenues, we have made appreciable progress in its implementation.

As at Dec 2020, we had released about N1.748 trillion out of a total of the N1.962 trillion voted for the implementation of critical capital projects, representing a performance of about 89.1%.

The overall performance of the 2020 Budget currently stands at an impressive 97.7%.

This commendable outcome underscores the importance of our efforts, together with the Legislature, to return to the discipline of a January-to-December fiscal year.

To ensure full implementation of the 2020 Capital Budget and optimize its contribution to our economic revival efforts, the National Assembly recently approved our request to allow MDAs to continue to expend released funds for their 2020 capital budgets till 31st March, 2021.

I would like to express my appreciation to the National Assembly, again, for their gracious understanding and speedy action on this matter.

I commend the sustained mutual understanding, collaboration and high-level engagements between officials of the Executive and Legislative Arms of Government, which have made the accelerated enactment of these Bills possible.