A Professor of Petroleum Economics, Wumi Iledare says it will be difficult for Nigeria to fund 2021 budget of N13.08 trillion with oil revenue, going by the development in the global oil market.
The 2021 appropriation bill presented on October 8, by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly, NASS, for passage, was predicated on crude oil benchmark price of $40 per barrel at 1.86 million daily oil output.
But Iledare in an interview in Abuja on Sunday said, “Don’t expect the budget to be funded by revenue from oil or hydrocarbons extraction.
“That is impossible under the current global economic projections. Moreover, a great proportion of oil production is not accessible to the government for its budget funding,” he said.
Iledare said that there were possibilities that budget might be increased from N13.08 trillion to about N15 trillion.
He said that non-oil sector might be the target if some stimulus packages were part of the budget.
He said that government should look into domestic funding and advised against foreign loan to fund wages and salaries.
“One can also hope that a bulk of the funding will be dedicated to capital projects,” he said.
