The federal government of Nigeria has indicated the possibility of returning to the National Assembly next year to seek approval for a supplementary budget if the country exceeds its revenue projections.

Currently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s N27.5 trillion appropriation bill for 2024 is under scrutiny by the legislative branch.

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Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, addressed the National Assembly Committee on Finance during a joint sitting, highlighting a significant improvement in the country’s revenue profile in recent months.

Edun informed lawmakers that if the positive trend in revenue continues, the federal government may revisit the National Assembly to request additional appropriation for the surplus revenue.

Edun stated, “The revenue performance was encouraging; here we see that the revenue profile is encouraging.

It is expected that it will continue to be encouraging. There is a fiscal policy and tax reform committee which is already at work.

It is meant to provide fundamental changes together with digitalization and greater efficiency in collection because it is revenue to debt that can give us the opportunity to even increase this budget.

If we have a solid revenue performance, we will be coming back, and I am sure Mr. President will authorize the process to return to the National Assembly to appropriate extra revenue. That is a situation we are all looking forward to.”

He provided insights into the budget performance, noting that expenditure as of the third quarter was 32% below the budget estimate, while revenue was 5% higher.

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Edun emphasized the encouraging revenue performance due to changes in the exchange rate and foreign debt.

He discussed efforts to address capital spending challenges and outlined the expected fiscal deficit reduction from N13.7 trillion to N9.2 trillion.

Edun highlighted the positive aspect that the deficit as a percentage of GDP and capital expenditure remains steady at 3.9%, and efforts are underway to enhance tax revenue as a percentage of GDP from under 10% to 18% within the next two or three years.