The Director-general of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, has said one of the ways for Nigeria to solve its revenue problems is for the country to eliminate all regressive subsidies, thereby growing its revenue.
He also stated that the country’s public service was not bloated, as the total number of public servants was small when compared to the country’s overall population and that the impact of cutting budget allocations to Federal Government agencies as a means of raising revenue would be of little impact.
Speaking in Abuja at the launch of the Nigerian Development Update by the World Bank, he clarified that allocations to the legislature account for less than one percent of the total budget for the year and as such, reductions won’t solve revenue problems.
“Some people have said that we pay the legislature too much. Let’s concede that that is the case; the total budget of the National Assembly is N128bn. If I make that zero, this year we have a N13.6tn budget; so, N128bn is less than one percent. So, how does that move the needle?
“Also, the overhead budget for all Federal Government agencies this year was N425bn, which often is not even funded; if I make that zero, what does it do?”
“Again, if you think the public service is bloated, it is not true; if you take the total number of public servants relative to our population size, it is not much. Public service wages are very low,” he said.
Akabueze said the problem of the civil service was too many people in the wrong jobs and too few people in the right jobs.
He, however, assured that the Federal Government was working to address the challenge.
