Federal Government has spent about N29.3 trillionn (non-debt) recurrent expenditure in the last 10 years.
This is according to data compiled by the budget implementation report and published by the Budget Office.
Analysis of the data showed that government has earned N33.2 trillion as revenue, while Nigeria’s recurrent expenditure includes spending on personnel expenses, pensions, and gratuities, service-wide votes, and overheads.
According to the report, the overhead has consumed about 50.6 percent of total budget expenditure and 88.5 percent of revenue in the last decade.
Following the economic crisis occasioned by the Corona-virus pandemic, and the fall in the crude Oil prices, the federal government currently relies on about 33 percent of its actualized revenue since 2015, which was about 55 percent.
With the decline in oil revenue, the impact of a continuous increase in recurrent expenditure has widened Nigeria’s fiscal deficits closing at N6.1 trillion in 2020, the highest since 2009.
Economic analysts said, Nigeria’s high spending on recurrent expenditure compared to capital expenditure as a phenomenon that is inimical to economic growth.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has recorded a budget deficit every year since 2009 averaging about N1.1 trillion in the 5 years before the Buhari Administration came into power in 2015. However, since 2015, budget deficits have averaged N3.3 trillion.