The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, on Thursday described the huge sum of N3.3 trillion personnel cost provision in the 2020 Appropriation Bill as undesirable for nation’s development when compared to the N2.1 trillion voted for capital projects.
Ahmed, who expressed this feeling during her defence of the ministry’s budget before lawmakers in Abuja, explained that the huge recurrent expenditure provisions in the proposed budget portrayed Nigeria as a country with appetite for consumption.
The minister said: “We have a national problem of low productivity especially within government. Our personnel cost in the 2020 budget proposal is N3.3 trillion from a budget size of N10.3 trillion.
“We should work together to see how we can reduce the cost. If we cannot reduce the cost, we should be able to maximise the staff that we have and how we can increase their productivity. It is a bad situation that had built up over time. We have to do something that is unpopular, bold and radical to make a difference.
“It is not what the executive alone can doo. We will be urging the nation to support us when we are taking some radical actions in order to increase productivity not just in the public service but also nationally”
This is even as the upper chamber of the National Assembly also approved the Federal Government’s proposal to launch an infrastructure bond of N10 trillion to tackle the funding gap for road projects nationwide.
The approval, though tentative, was granted when the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola defended the ministry’s 2020 budget before the joint committee on Works of the National Assembly.
Fashola told the lawmakers that pension fund managers as well as other investors, including retail investors, would be encouraged to participate in the bond auction with amount as little as N10,000 and N50,000.
Despite the low sum of N287.2 billion provided for his ministry in the proposed 2020 budget, Fashola explained that alternative sources of funding like the Sukuk, the presidential infrastructure fund and the task credit would be explored to increase funding for the sector rather than relying on too much on public private partnerships (PPPs) arrangement.
He projected that the launch of the debt instrument (bond) with a very competitive coupon rate backed by law was a very secure investment option that the people could explore for returns.
