James Emejo in Abuja
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has advised the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) to recommend policies and strategies for solving Nigeria’s developmental challenges.
The minister further urged the commission to study and emulate developed countries that had encountered similar challenges with Nigeria during their struggling years, and recommend some of their interventions to the federal government to aid the country’s development.
The minister gave the charge when he received the Chairman of the commission, Mr. Victor Muruako and the management staff on a courtesy visit in Abuja.
In a statement issued by the ministry’s Director, Information,
Julie Osagie Jacobs, Bagudu specifically urged the commission to focus on supporting the federal government’s efforts at providing social amenities to Nigerians, rather than setting limits of consolidated debts for all tiers of government.
The FRC recently urged the federal and state governments to set a debt ceiling in tandem with Section 42 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, as well as stop borrowing for recurrent expenditure.
The commission argued that such a ceiling should be defined vis-a-vis debt-to-revenue.
However, Muruako earlier applauded the ministers’ role in affording the commission’s staff several opportunities for trainings, and appealed for more opportunities.
He therefore, solicited the minister’s assistance for increase in the budgetary allocation for the commission to enable the commission deliver on its mandate.
The advocacy for debt limit were part of the recommendations contained in a paper presented recently by the FRC Director, Legal, Investigation and Enforcement, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Mr. Charles Abana, at a media-civil society roundtable, organised by OrderPaper Advocacy Initiative and the Growth Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT).
In the paper titled, “Borrowing, Debt and Indebtedness in Nigeria’s 2024-2026 MTEF: A Guide from the FR.Act, 2027,”, Abana stated that the fiscal policy framework envisaged by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 was the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
He said Section 12 of the Act posits that government at all levels shall only borrow for capital expenditure and human development.
He prescribed a reduction in overhead capital and the cost of governance so as to free more resources for developmental capital.
He also recommended among other things that more public assets should be slated for privatisation while advocating a moratorium on new debts, especially foreign ones.
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