Nigeria expects to spend 26.01 trillion naira ($34 billion) for the 2024 budget, assuming an oil price of $73.96 per barrel and an exchange rate of 700 naira per dollar, according to the country’s budget minister on Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Atiku Bagudu also stated that Nigeria’s 2024 budget will aim for oil output of 1.78 million barrels per day.
He also stated that the government will set aside 8.25 trillion naira ($10.8 billion) for debt servicing and 7.78 trillion naira for civil worker wages and pensions.
According to Bagudu, the economy would grow at a 3.76% annual pace next year, with inflation now at a 20-year high of 27.72%, but predicted to fall to 21% next year.
In Nigeria, inflation has reached double digits since 2016, eroding incomes and savings, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates, to its highest level in almost two decades.
President Bola Tinubu has been under pressure to ease economic hardship in Nigeria, which worsened after he scrapped a decades-old petrol subsidy that caused pump prices to triple and allowed the naira to depreciate by more than 50%, sending prices surging in Africa’s top oil producer and most populous nation.
