The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this on Tuesday when she appeared before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.

Daily Trust reports that the federal government planned to borrow N4.28 trillion from domestic and foreign sources to finance 2021 budget deficit of N5.20 trillion, which represents 3.64 percent of estimated GDP.

The minister said the total debts, comprising domestic and foreign borrowings of the federal and state governments and the FCT, stood at N31.01 trillion as at June 30, 2020.

According to her, the country’s debt profile was N27.4 trillion in December 2019.

She added that based on existing approvals, the debt is projected to rise to N32.5 trillion in December 31, 2020 and N38.68 trillion in December 31, 2021.

The minister, however, said the federal government had not defaulted in the repayment of its loans.

“We have been meeting all our local and foreign obligations as and when due.

“We have never defaulted in any debt service,” she added.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the 2021 budget of 13.08tn.

Mrs. Ahmed noted that, “Just briefly, the performance of the FGN budget as at July, for revenue, was 68 per cent. We had a 68 per cent revenue performance prorated to July. The performance of expenditure, on the other hand, was 92.3 per cent, and that is to say salaries were fully paid, pensions were paid, debt service was made, as well as transfers classified as statutory.”

Corroborating this, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, said, “The overall budget implementation, expenditure wise, as of July was 92.3 per cent, and she (minister) pointed out items like debt service and personnel cost performed 100 per cent each.

“Capital budget as of that day has reached 60 per cent performance, and that is what brought down the overall average to 92 per cent. As at now, every agency of government has received at least 50 per cent of their 2020 capital budget released to them.”

However, with the coming of the pandemic, the budget was amended in July, 2020, to N10.8tn.

According to the 2019 Third Quarter Budget Implementation Report (BIR), the approved budget was N8.92tn.

The current performance of the 2020 amended budget of 92 per cent in the third quarter is higher than the 86.9 per cent of the expenditure in the 2019 budget.

The records show that as at Q3, the Federal Government’s actual aggregate revenue was N4.25tn, which is 81 per cent of the target, while from the budgeted expenditure of N6.69tn, at least N5.81tn was spent, representing 86.9 per cent performance.

N/Assembly gets N13.08tn proposal Thursday

The finance minister said President Buhari might submit the 2021 budget proposal to the National Assembly on October 8, 2020 (Thursday).

She said the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) for the year was projected at N2.083tn, while oil benchmark was put at $40 per barrel; oil production at 1.86 million barrels per day (bpd), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth target at three per cent, inflation target at 11.95 per cent and foreign exchange (forex) set at N379 to $1.

“The total budget proposal that is made for 2021 is to enable us to attain a more inclusive growth and also to achieve the key objectives of government, which includes stimulating the economy, creating jobs, enhancing growth and creating infrastructural investment, also promoting manufacturing and local production.”