Is Nigeria’s Proposed N6tr Budget The Highest Ever?

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The Federal Executive Council concluded its meeting today and agreed on a whopping N6 trillion  budget for 2016. The Budget is up 33%  from the N4.5 trillion presented in 2015. According to media reports, 30% of the budget will be allocated for capital expenditure.

If passed the budget is on track to be Nigeria’s biggest budget ever and will be 886% higher than the N677.5 billion budget at the start of the millennium in 2000. Here is a look at Nigeria’s budget since the year 2000.

From a modest budget of about N677.5 billion to N4.5 trillion passed in the 2015 appropriation act. Nigeria’s highest budget was in 2013 when it passed a N4.987 trillion budget the record highest at the time. According to reports from the FEC, Nigeria is likely to appropriate about 30% of the N6trillion, N1.8 trillion for Capital Expenditure. However, this figure will still be below the N1.85 trillion budgeted in 2010 for Capital Expenditure and the highest by our records.

Critics of the Nations budget process will often point to the fact that a lot of emphasis is placed on the act of passing the budget itself with less press coverage on the actual performance of the budget.