“There’s Nothing Hopeful Around Proposed 2024 Budget” – Business Expert

By
Alex Adedamola
-

A business advisory consultant, Wole Ogundare, on Saturday, revealed that the 2024 budget proposed by President Bola Tinubu does not inspire hope when the projected GDP growth rate is compared to the population growth rate.

Ogundare led this out during an interview on Channels TV, where he tagged the appropriation ‘budget of coasting along.’

He said: “When you look at the assumptions, the first thing I typically look at is the growth rate. So the macroeconomic framework tends to force you to look at the growth rate. The President projected a 3.76 growth rate; if you look at that growth rate, how does it really make sense?

READ MORE: 2024 Budget: We’ve Discovered Some MDAs Have Over-Bloated Personnel Cost — Reps

“You compare it to the population growth rate in Nigeria. Our population growth rate today is about 2.5, so if you look at a 2.5 population growth rate relative to a 3.76 GDP growth, it tells you immediately that this is not a budget of hope, it is a budget of coasting along. Let us just coast along for now.

“Any budget of hope will be something where the growth rate is about 7 to 10 per cent. So, I guess the guys in charge are being very careful not to overestimate their position, which is why they say, ’ Look, let us just coast along’. So anything around hope, forget it; Nigerians should just forget it for now because there is nothing hopeful around it.

“This is not the budget for me that will reduce the japa syndrome; it is not the budget that will also create some huge industrialisation or human capital, massive development, or a budget that can encourage employment—none of those things. This is just let’s coast along for now and all the indicators seem to speak to this.”

“We have not seen any strategic initiative that will bring down recurrent expenditure. We have seen a consistent increase in the recurrent expenditure of the government because the structure on which you incur recurrent expenditure is being expanded.”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR