National Assembly to get 2024 budget in October

• FG charges MDAs on successful budget delivery

The Budget Office of the Federation has begun the move to digitally address bottlenecks in the budgetary processes as well as enhance accountability in the management of public funds.

This comes as the Office revealed that the 2024 budget would be presented to the National Assembly next month.The office also disclosed that it would present the 2024 budget to the National Assembly by October 2023.

This was disclosed, yesterday, at the commencement of the training of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on the 2024 budget preparation using the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System Budget Preparation Sub-System (GIFMIS/BPS).

The Director-General, the Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Ben Akabueze, said the GIFMIS budget preparation subsystem seeks to facilitate the nation’s budgetary processes in MDAs, while minimising the bottlenecks, as well as enhancing efficiency, transparency and accountability.

“We hope to submit the 2024 budget before the end of October 2023, and we are working to make sure it happens, even though it is a new administration. We are working to meet the deadline for the budget submission so that the National Assembly can do their own and the budget is passed within the year for the implementation to start by January 2024,” he stated.

He said the collaboration and synergy between the various MDAs are paramount, as the budget office moves to harmonise the sectoral policies with the overarching National Development Plan 2021- 2025 and the specific programmes of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

Akabueze, who was represented by the Director of Revenue and Fiscal Policy, Hapsatu Mormoni, said the crucial training is aimed at enhancing MDAs collective capacity to effectively use the budget preparation sub-system of the GIFMIS in the budget preparation process.

He said the President’s agenda outlines the framework for sustainably achieving inclusive socio-economic growth, infrastructural development and the overall well-being of the people.

Akabueze enjoined MDAs to study the Budget Call Circular in detail and avoid making mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided if they had complied with the relevant sections of the circular.

He said to this end, emphasis would be made in one of the modules this year on key items and sections to note in the 2024 Federal Government Budget Call Circular.

“Let us harness the power of information technology to build a more transparent, accountable, and effective government machinery,” he stated.

Also speaking the Director of Procurement/Zonal Coordinator of the Training, Adelola Agbana Titus, said the training is to address and correct bottlenecks in the public procurement process and budget planning in MDAs.

“Before now things are done in shabby ways that are not supposed to be done with the MDAs, we have to come back as a budget office to address and correct them. With this digital tool, things should move according to how we plan it so that by December the budget will be presented to the NASS, so we can start the budget by January with bottlenecks and hitches,” he said.