FG to Spend N7.76tn on Salaries, Others

The Federal Government’s recently agreed wage with the Labour Congress, salaries to federal workers, and other non-debt recurrent costs are expected to gulp N7.76tn in 2023.

This is based on data from the initial 2023 budget and recently signed 2023 supplementary budget. The country’s central government recently approved a N2.18tn budget to augment new expenses, including an agreed wage reward for workers due to the removal of fuel subsidy.

When the budget was announced, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, noted that N605bn has been earmarked for national defense, while N210bn will cover the payment of wage awards.

He said, “N605bn for national defense and security is to sustain the gains made in security. It will accelerate the gains in that sector as the funds will be made available to security agencies before the year runs out.

“Equally a sum of N300bn was provided to repair bridges, including Eko and Third Mainland bridges, as well as construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.

“The sum of N210bn was provided for the payment of wage Awards. In negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress, the federal government agreed to pay N35,000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the Federal Government and that covers September, October, November, and December 2023.”

According to appropriation details from the budget office, N1.01tn of the total budget is for recurrent expenditure with N1.17tn pegged for capital expenditure. The supplementary budget is set to increase the total non-debt recurrent expenditure of the Federal Government to N7.76tn and capital expenditure to N4.53tn.

The supplementary budget is also set to increase the total budget for 2023 to N19.81tn. When debt servicing is removed, the budget totals N13.26tn. Of the N7.76tn budgeted for recurrent expenditure, at least N4.31tn (55.54 per cent) will be spent on salaries. So far, the government has spent N978.10bn on salaries in the first three months of 2023, based on the 2023 Q1 implementation report.

It has spent N1.24tn on non-debt recurrent expenditure and N175.45bn on capital expenditure. So far, the government has borrowed N2.30tn to finance its budget, and before signing its supplementary budget, it predicted that fiscal deficit for the year would be N9.01tn.