The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, on Tuesday, urged National Assembly lawmakers to fast-track the deliberations on the tax reform bills now before them in view of the socioeconomic benefits to the country.
Specifically, the minister, who made the appeal to the legislators while defending his ministry’s proposed budget for 2025 fiscal year before the National Assembly Joint Committees on National Planning, maintained that the passage of the tax reforms bill held great potential for boosting the country’s revenue and help the Federal Government in achieving its 18 per cent revenue-to-GDP target.
He assured the lawmakers that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration remained focused on achieving a higher growth rate for the country based on its economic reforms for the nation’s sustainable development.
Bagudu said: “President Bola Tinubu has steered the economy in the right direction, and we are determined to stay the course.
“Under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, and with your support, our economy has turned the bend and is facing the right direction. The Renewed Hope Agenda Strategy of once and for all confronting our decades of underinvestment is working, and the positive trajectory is being sustained,” the minister added.
While noting that the Nigeria’s GDP growth rate has remained above 3% for three successive quarters and demonstrating the increasingly positive impact of the administration’s reforms, Bagudu listed other positive impacts of the reforms as including deficit financing reduction, and non-recourse to ways and means beyond legal limits which dropped from over 6.1% in 2023 to less than 4% in 2024.
According to him, the reform strategy has enhanced the liquidity of the sub-national governments as monthly allocations from the federation account to all tiers of government are on the increase.
The minister assured the legislators that the administration would generate the funds needed to finance the 2025 financial plans through innovative financing and line budget allocation through innovative financing measures to expand economic activities and generate substantial revenue to fund ongoing critical infrastructures.
On his ministry’s budget defence, Bagudu said: “As the chief marketer of the Renewed Hope Agenda and Agenda 2050 strategies, the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is poised to intensify its innovative financing to take forward the delivery of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure, including housing, roads and railway.
“We shall more aggressively raise funding for our creative and high-impact programmes, including Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, Consumer Credit, National Agriculture Development Fund, Mortgage Fund, CNG Energy transition, Student Loans Fund, and support to NANO and MSMEs”, he added.
He explained that apart from the funds that would accrue from maintaining fuel and removing forex subsidies, the administration was determined to increase crude oil production beyond the estimated 2.06 barrels per day at a lower cost by combating crude theft to improve federal revenues during the fiscal year.
