2021 Presidency’s budget: Finance Ministry, EFCC, BPE, others deliberate on N10bn expenditure ceiling

Agencies of government in the nation’s seat of power, the Presidency held a virtual budget consultations for the 2021 budget to deliberate on the expenditure ceiling of N10 billion for the 2021 pre-bilateral proposal.

The Permanent Secretary, State House, Mr Tijjani Umar, led officials of government agencies in the Presidency and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to the meeting.

The latest  budget circular issued by the Ministry of Finance had put the expenditure ceiling of the 2021 pre-bilateral proposal for the Presidency at N10 billion compared to N15.3 billion of the revised 2020 budget passed by the National Assembly.

“The preparation of the 2021 budget estimates takes into consideration the policies and strategies contained in the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), which is the Federal Government pre-budget statement,’’ Umar said in a statement by the Deputy Director of Information in the State House, Mr Attah Esa.

He said in line with the directive of the Finance Ministry, the annual budget was being prepared using the Zero-Based Budget (ZBB) approach and in compliance with the government’s policy thrust as articulated in the MTEF/FSP and Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP).

Citing a September 1, 2020 circular from the ministry, Umar said MDAs had been directed to work assiduously to conclude the budget bilateral meetings as scheduled in order to get the 2021 budget ready for transmission to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari this month.

The meeting was attended by Chief Executives and key budget, finance and accounts staff of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS).

Others are the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).