By Christiana Ekpa
The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, former Director General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze and others have advocated for revitalisation and reforms to ensure a more realistic and sustainable budgeting process in the country that is tied to the country’s quest for development.
They made the call in separate remarks at a Two-Day National Policy Dialogue which began in Abuja on Tuesday organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on National Planning and Economic Development with the Theme: “The Imperatives of National Development Plan for Effective Budgeting System and Sustainable Growth Of the Nigerian Economy”.
In his remark, the Vice President who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Tope Fasua said the two-day discourse was formed around how as a country Nigeria can quicken its pace of development by integrating national development plans more with the yearly budgets and project into the medium and long term for the country.
He said, “At the very time, it was a very important topic for the moment and for the time to come in view of President Tinubu’s great vision for the people of Nigeria, according to the renewed agenda of Mr. President.
“Also, it’s asked, how can our budgets be impacted more positively by these plans and how do we institute a path towards sustainable growth, which not only focuses on the annual trajectory of our domestic product GDP, but also focuses on the improvement of standards of living of our people as measured by reduction in poverty rates and the rise of per capita income.
“This is an apt moment to echo the thoughts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Minister, the Minister of Budget and Planning, to the extent that our budgets should not only be people-focused. But our budgets should actually be larger than they are presently. This informed the recent adjustment to the 2026 budget, fiscal budget, by about 10 trillion line, to taking the sum to 68 trillion”.
