President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said the two recessions witnessed by the country in four years affected the growth of the economy despite the reforms introduced.
Buhari said this while giving an overview of the 2021 budget performance before the joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday.
The president said while oil revenue target performance was below expectation, non-oil revenue rose above target by 7 percent in 2021.
He said the production shortfall of oil is the main factor that was also exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the 2022 budget of N16.39 trillion was tagged “Budget of Growth and Sustainability” which was predicated on certain parameters to reflect current realities, adding that deficit financing amounting to N5.01 trillion will be through loans and other sources.
Buhari assured that Nigeria has no debt sustainability problem but a revenue challenge.
“The sustained improvement in non-oil taxes indicates that some of our revenue reforms are yielding positive results. We expect further improvement in revenue collections later in the year as more corporate entities file their tax returns and we accelerate the implementation
of our revenue reforms,” he said.
