Nigeria’s budget minister announced on Monday (October 17, 2023) that the country intends to spend $34 billion (26.01 trillion naira) for the 2024 budget, assuming an oil price of $73.96 for its expenditures at an exchange rate of 700 naira to the dollar.
Speaking to reporters, Atiku Bagudu stated that Nigeria’s 2024 spending plan calls for oil production to average 1.78 million barrels per day.
He continued by saying that the government would set aside 8.25 trillion naira ($10.8 billion) for debt service and 7.78 trillion naira for salaries and pensions for public employees.
According to Bagudu, the economy is projected to expand at a rate of 3.76% next year, with inflation forecast to moderate to 21% from its 20-year high of 27.72%.
Since 2016, Nigeria’s inflation rate has reached double digits, destroying earnings and savings and forcing the central bank to increase interest rates to their highest level in nearly two decades.
President Bola Tinubu has come under pressure to ease the country’s economic hardship, which got worse after he eliminated a decades-old gasoline subsidy that tripled gas prices at the pumps and allowed the naira to lose more than 50% of its value, driving up prices in Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country.
