The Minister of Finance , Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Thursday, said the Federal Government would prepare a supplementary budget to be sent to the National Assembly to cater for COVID – 19 vaccines and vaccination .
She said the fiscal document would be prepared in March .
Ahmed spoke at the maiden edition of State House briefing held at the Presidential Villa , Abuja .
“ There will be a supplementary budget, the first one will be in March relating the COVID – 19 pandemic but we will also have a mid – year review like we did last year of the budget .
“ If at the time we do the review and there is a need to go back to do any amendment for supplementary budget , at that time, we will take that decision ; if not , we will just report the review, ” she said .
Ahmed gave an indication that the first batch of COVID – 19 vaccines will arrive the country next week when she said , “ We have a provision in the 2021 budget for immunisation . We are already releasing money to the health authorities to start operation in the first batch of vaccines that is going to arrive the country in one week .
“ But what we have in the budget is not enough, so we are working with the health authorities to provide a plan that will be taken to the President for approval and to be taken to the National Assembly as a supplementary budget specifically for COVID -19 vaccination . ”
The minister again said the level of Nigeria ’ s borrowing is not too high contrary to the general belief.
“ There is a lot of sensitivity in Nigeria about the level of borrowing by the government and it is not misplaced.
“ I said earlier that the level of borrowing is not unreasonable, it is not high . The problem we have is that of revenue . So , what we need to do is to increase revenue to be able to enhance our debt to GDP obligation capacity, ” she added.
Ahmed said if the government decided not to borrow and therefore do not build rails and major infrastructure until revenue rises enough , the country would regress .
She described borrowing as a decision that every government has to take.
She added , “ Our assessment is that we need to borrow to build our major infrastructure.
“ We just need to make sure that when we borrow, we are applying the borrowing to specific major infrastructure that will enhance the business environment in this country .
“ Again, we all have to work , not just the Federal Government but also state governments , to increase our revenue to enhance our debt service obligations.
“ We also have to make sure that when we are choosing the projects , we are choosing carefully the ones that will enhance business environment so that more revenue yields come into the treasuries of the country.
The minister put the country’ s total borrowing as of December 31, 2020 at 21. 6percent of the GDP.
She said as of 2019, the debt to GDP ratio was 19. 2percent , adding that only two percent was added .
She also described the increase in crude oil price as positive for the country , saying the more revenue the nation realises out of the budget , the less it will borrow.
Ahmed said there were plans to get the Federal Executive council to approve a memorandum to compel MDAs to patronise made in Nigeria goods .
On the fears being expressed from certain quotas on Chinese loans, she said the loans are for capital projects .
The Director -General , Debt Management Office , Ms Patience Oniha , said the country’ s external debt as of Thursday “ is about $31bn. ”
Out of the figure, she put Chinese loans at N 3. 2trn, which she said was about 10% of the total .
