President Muhammadu Buhari will likely propose the 2023 budget to the National Assembly in September, barring any changes.
This proposal by Buhari was revealed on Monday in Abuja at a workshop on budget preparation utilising the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System by Ben Akabueze, Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation.
Over 4,000 budget officials from over 900 government ministries, departments; as well as other organisations are attended the two-day nationwide training on budget preparation.
Akabueze was represented by the Director of Expenditure (Socials) in the Budget Office, Mr. Fabian Ogbu.
He stated that as part of its Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms; the Federal Government under Buhari is determined to ensure consistent and prompt preparation, submission, and approval of annual budgets. However, he lamented that MDAs do not study the Budget Call Circular in detail; noting that as such, they make mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided; particularly if they had complied with the relevant sections of the Budget Circular.
“The main goal of this training is to provide continuous learning to equip budget personnel with the requisite knowledge, skills, and the tools they require to prepare and submit the 2023 budget,” he said.
“It has been observed that MDAs do not study the budget circular in detail; as such make mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided if they had complied with relevant sections of the budget cycle.”
He said the 2023 budget is also being prepared in tandem with extant federal government policies and guidelines; as articulated in the 2023 Budget Call Circular and other relevant laws/regulations.
To address this, Akabueze said one of the modules at the training would address key items and sections to note in the 2023 Budget Call Circular.
Meanwhile, Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba sociopolitical organisation, on Monday, August 15, 2022 criticised the Federal Government for its handling of the worrisome spate of insecurity in Nigeria
It stated that the predicament was akin to handing over control of the nation to terrorists.
The group referred to a recent admission by the spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu; which National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, described as as “extremely sad and an acknowledgment of failure” by the government.
Shehu claimed that the government had been “deceived” into liberating the terrorist’s incarcerated wife and children; without also freeing the hostages from the Abuja-Kaduna train attack.
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Afenifere said: “In view of the fact that government is expected to possess superior power in virtually everything above others in a country; considering the fact that the primary responsibilities of the government are provision of security and welfare for the people; considering the fact that the current administration has failed to provide either security or welfare for the people of Nigeria in recent times; one may not be wrong to state that President Buhari’s government has greatly lost the confidence, trust and hope invested in it at inception.
