Senior Partner, Olisa Agbakoba Legal, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, has predicted that Nigeria’s annual budget could hit N100 trillion by 2026, adding that the country’s proposed N50 trillion 2025 budget has the potential to unlock a massive N500 trillion revenue by 2030.
He also called on the government to end wastage in governance, institute free primary and secondary education, and provide free healthcare services modelled after the United Kingdom’s (UK) NHS.
In a statement on Monday, Agbakoba said, “I was not surprised that our national budget has reached N50 trillion for 2025. I predicted this possibility five years ago. We are simply not collecting potential revenue.
“Thanks to two men, the possibility of hitting a N100 trillion budget by 2026 is viable. We are concentrating on the tax side of revenue and ignoring the governance side.
“If the twin effort of tax and governance revenue is escalated, we ought to hit N500 trillion budgets annually by 2030. To do this requires innovation.
“First bureaucratic procedures must give way to practical outcomes. The second is big leadership. Third is easing the hardship in the land by quantitative easing and big-ticket palliatives so that all fees are waived at primary and secondary schools and health care is made free like the NHS in the UK.
“More imaginative palliatives are urgently needed to cushion the impact of the tough correction in progress. I always recommended a department of efficiency innovation and transformation to cut waste.”
According to him, “Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk to perform this task in the United States. Part of the success of Margaret Thatcher was her Efficiency office. There is far too much waste of government resources in Nigeria that an effective efficiency can cut significantly.
“We need to see substantial borrowing to get manufacturing off the ground. There will be no production if we don’t cut waste and consumption.
“I look forward therefore, to a lean government shedding excess weight by the federal government unloading power to states and local governments.
“Government must let go of its unnecessary hold on Education. The decades of underfunding of ASUU may be resolved by making education autonomous from tight government control.
“I believe an effective and efficient government can deliver a good quality of life to Nigerians. Inflation will go down if productivity improves. These steps are easy but require major leadership decisions. The pain all Nigerians feel at present is completely resolvable with new tools applied.”
Sunday Ehigiator
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