Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of State for Finance-designate, has categorically stated that there is a need for the government to stick with whatever policies it formulates and present a budget that reflects the reality of the country’s economy, news.ng reports.
Oyedele made this known during his confirmation screening at the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday.
Recall that last week, President Bola Tinubu nominated Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance and forwarded his name to the Senate for confirmation.
Fielding questions from senators, Oyedele noted that adequate funding of government budgets will radically improve fiscal planning and boost investors’ confidence.
He stressed that one of the major factors that would attract both local and foreign investors is a stable policy environment.
“So, in a nutshell, the priorities would be, one, to work with the team. The Minister for Solid Minerals has been doing a lot, but we need to then complement that with the policy certainty environment, and we may be coming to the National Assembly in this regard.
“Once we can fix the policy, I think the other issues are secondary, which many of the investors, locally and globally, are familiar with in terms of how to manage them,” he stated.
While admitting that the country’s economy is largely driven by government funding, he therefore advised that there should be a shift from that mentality and a focus on instituting systems that encourage the private sector.
Commenting on budget utilisation, the former Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms noted that proper funding and implementation of government budgets are important, particularly for capital projects.
“So, the second question is from the distinguished Senator Mungunu from Bono, a very important point around the fact that our economy is likely public sector-driven. Even though our journey is to move towards a private sector-led economy, it won’t happen overnight.
“And therefore, it’s important that from the public sector perspective, when we have budgets, we need to ensure that there is funding behind them, and we need to ensure that there are releases so that we can execute 100%, if possible, particularly for capital expenditure,” he added.
Having carefully studied the country’s budget over the past five years, the financial expert noted that virtually all government budgets (federal and state) are overly ambitious, with little revenue to execute most of the projects contained in them.
He warned that it is time governments shift from overdependence on funding budgets through deficit financing to making realistic budget projections.
“So, what do I see? What I’ve seen, just looking at Nigeria’s budget over the past five years in particular, is that we’ve had too many years when our budgets seem too ambitious compared to our revenue. We were not focusing on the revenue side.
“But at the end of the day, I can say to you that today, the federal government and states combined, we have nearly half of our budget, which is deficit-financed.
“So, what we need to then pay more attention to is realistic revenue to drive your budget, and whatever gaps you have, you have to do cash management planning.
“You know, you’ve allocated an amount because an area is considered to be important. If there’s no money to support it, it’s as good as not having been allocated,” he stated.
