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President Goodluck
Jonathan will, Tuesday next week, present the 2011 budget estimate of
N4.56 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.

In a letter to
leaders of both chambers, dated December 8 2010, the president asked
the Speaker and the Senate President to let him address a joint session
of the national assembly at noon on Tuesday next week.

At the Federal
Executive Council meeting last Wednesday, the government approved a
budgetary proposal of N4.56 trillion for the 2011 fiscal year. The
figure is 10.27% less than that of 2010, but fits into the 2011-2013
Medium Term Fiscal Frame.

Wednesday’s
approval signifies the commencement of the implementation of the
2011-2013 Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) and Fiscal Strategy Pare
(FSP), the revenue and expenditure frameworks of the government as
agreed to by FEC.

According to the
these documents, the 2011 budget will have an increased non-debt
recurrent expenditure compared to the 2010 budget. The recurrent
non-debt expenditure increased by 6.77% to N2.849 trillion with major
increase in personnel cost and lower overheads.

Recurrent
expenditure has been on the increase in recent years and this trend
might persist in the medium term as the wage increase for civil
servants, medical personnel, university lecturers etc. is fully
implemented.

“To manage this,
the Government is to set up a Committee to rationalise recurrent
expenditure.” Notwithstanding complaints by policy makers, the capital
expenditure decreased by 38.6% to N1.083 trillion. Statutory transfer
is lower at N179.78 billion, while debt service recurrent is also lower
at N517.07 billion.

Return of joint sessions

In addition to the
budget, the president also forwarded a bill to establish the Nigeria
Sovereign Investment Authority which he said will “build a savings base
for the future generations, enhance development of the infrastructure
sector in Nigeria, assist fiscal stability in certain circumstances and
for related matters.” The budget presentation is coming late, but if
successfully presented to a joint session of the national assembly, it
will mark a return to the traditional method of budget presentation
which was discarded last year following the inability of both chambers
of the Assembly to agree on a venue.

Since 1999, the president had always addressed a joint session of
the legislators in the larger House of Reps chambers but last year the
Senate insisted that the address take place in its chambers.