Tanimu Yakubu: There Will be Top-Level Shake-Up Among Permanent Secretaries to Drive compliance, Budget Implementation

Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu has outlined plans for structural reforms, including personnel changes at the top level of permanent secretaries to enhance the implementation of the 2024 budget. 

In an interview on ARISE NEWS on Thursday, also discussed the Nigerian government’s optimism regarding key economic parameters. He addressed crude oil production, inflation, agricultural investment, and GDP rebasing, offering insights into the administration’s strategies and goals for the 2024 budget and beyond.

Yakubu highlighted Nigeria’s crude oil production target of 2.6 million barrels per day, citing significant investments and enhanced security in the Niger Delta. 

“There will be personnel changes, especially at the top level of permanent secretaries to make sure that they are really made to take charge of the implementation of the budget…We will increase the level of monitoring. When projects are presented for payment, there will also be reports from the budget monitoring evaluation of the Budget Office that will be considered before payments are made,” he stated. 

“Nigeria has sufficient investment to actually drill 3 million barrels per day, but it looks like some forces somewhere have decided that the country cannot get more than 900 thousand barrels per day. This was what President Yar’Adua inherited from President Obasanjo in 2007, this was the same output level that President Muhammadu Buhari inherited from President Jonathan in 2015, and exactly this was the same output that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023,” he explained. 

Yakubu added that recent asset transfers by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) could contribute an additional 130,000 barrels daily in 2025.

Discussing inflation, Yakubu expressed confidence in reducing the current rate of 34% to 15%, emphasising the impact of domestic production. 

“With Dangote Refinery coming on stream and smaller local refineries adding supply, we think this will substantially reduce the pressure on the naira,” he stated. 

He also noted increased foreign portfolio investments and plans to lower upstream production costs as measures to stabilise prices and boost foreign exchange earnings.

Regarding GDP rebasing, Yakubu confirmed that Nigeria has not conducted a GDP rebase in over a decade, despite the standard practice of doing so every five years.

“We are supposed to rebase the GDP every 5 years, we haven’t done it in a decade, certainly, some of the indices that could have given us a higher level are not even sure. But the normal assumption is that those sectors that were under-assessed or even new economic activities that have not been brought into our GDP will certainly boost the GDP level. We expect the outcome to be announced very soon,” he said.

Yakubu addressed criticisms of the agricultural budget, asserting that the government has prioritised inputs like fertilisers to boost production. 

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made available 120 billion naira to increase raw materials for domestic fertiliser blending plants. Next year, we aim to generate 1.2 million metric tonnes of fertilisers, almost three times the previous historic high,” he explained. He also credited improved security with enabling more farmers to return to their lands.

Yakubu also addressed concerns about inflation amid agricultural sector challenges. He attributed rising food prices to hoarding but anticipated market corrections as harvests increase and currency stabilises. 

“The harvest season is ongoing and the hoarders think that scarcity will prevail, so they are hoarding…When they see that the currency itself is firming up and that there is tangible evidence that more food was produced this year than last year, it will be rational on their part to begin to empty their stores, and then we would see that prices are actually coming down,” he predicted.

Faridah Abdulkadiri

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