Budgets Not Enough To Address Needs Of Nigerians – DG Budget Office

The Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, on Tuesday, stated that the federal, states and local government budgets were insufficient to meet the expectation of Nigerians.

Akabueze, while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, stressed the need for more revenue generation aimed at improving the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Our tax with GDP ratio is about the lowest in the whole world, not even talking about Africa.

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“So, our budgets, not just of the federal, but of the sub-national governments are way too small to be able to address our needs in the way that people expect,” he said.

He added: “Unfortunately, in the last five years, we have found ourselves first in recession in 2016 and just as we were turning the curve, the COVID-19-induced recession and during a recession, it is difficult to grow revenues.”

According to him, the national budget is not the same as the Federal Government’s.

Akabueze further explained that all the analysis is always focused on the Federal Government, but that an aggregate of the budgets of the three tiers of government is way below the threshold where it should be.