President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the National Planning Commission to go back to the drawing board and produce the framework for a 2016 national budget that will reduce recurrent expenditure and prioritise developmental projects.
Buhari wants a budget in which the capital projects are given priority.
Nigeria’s budget has for years been heavy on overheads and other recurrent components, a situation which has made the country’s economy move at retarded pace.
Buhari, apparently determined to change the situation, on Monday directed the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr. Bassey Akpanyung at the Presidential Villa, to chart a new course for the Nigerian budget in which capital projects will have prime place beginning from 2016.
“In carrying out its role in surveillance of the economy, review and appraisal of policies, the Commission should devise a plan for a realignment of the budget so that capital projects can be really prioritized,” he said.
The Executive Secretary of the NPC had informed the President that Nigeria’s planning system was beset by many challenges, which include the non-alignment of national plans with the annual budget and inadequate capacity in the departments of Planning, Research and Statistics in the various government ministries.
