Bigger bag, bigger gbese
Nigeria’s budget has been increased
Good morning, Big Brains. February feels like an apology for everything January did to us, and I’m here for it. Also, we have big news to share tomorrow, and you’ll love it, especially if you live in Abuja. And yes, today is a good day to tell a friend (or 100) to subscribe to The Big Daily.
- Margaret
Word count: ~ 1, 000
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Let’s get into today’s edition:
President Tinubu thinks the 2025 budget deserves extra zeros
Tinubu’s budget will finally roll out an increase in pensions
The Big Deal
President Tinubu thinks the 2025 budget deserves extra zeros
One thing President Tinubu is going to do is remind you that the N in his name stands for naira bills, even if the country is in a shitload of debt.
“What did T-Pain do this time?” The president has decided to increase Nigeria’s proposed 2025 budget from ₦49.7 trillion to ₦54.2 trillion. This decision was inspired by the impressive amount of money some key government agencies generated in 2024.
In letters sent to both the Senate and the House of Representatives, he explained that the extra money, which is ₦4.4 trillion in total, came from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigeria Customs Service, and other government-owned agencies.
Our president has never been frugal, so he sees no sense in hoarding money when it can be spent on “national priorities.” Lawmakers are currently working overtime to make sure the proposed budget is finalised and passed before the end of February.
Beyond the extra allocations to the budget, Tinubu also made more big promises to justify it. Remember how he promised to drop inflation to 15% on December 18? Well, he’s still standing on business even though the inflation rate is currently 34.6%. He also added one extra promise that the exchange rate, which is currently around ₦1,700/$1, will strengthen to ₦1,500/$1.
Why Is this a big deal?
Typically, extra zeros in the national budget shouldn’t hurt anybody, but for a chronic onigbese (debtor) like Nigeria, it’s likely to have some crazy effects.
In 2024, Nigeria spent more money on debt repayment than on development. Fiscal deficits hit ₦4.53 trillion in the second quarter of 2024 alone. Financial experts predict that the cycle of bad money decisions will continue in 2025 because we’re expected to spend up to ₦16 trillion on debt servicing. That means Nigeria will spend more repaying loans than it will on essentials like security, health, and education combined.
If debt servicing continues to eat the biggest chunk of Nigeria’s money, it raises questions about how the government plans to fund its fat promises. It’s also disturbing that the budget still isn’t allocating enough money to the sectors that really matter to Nigerians. The health sector, for example, is getting only about 5% of the whole budget, a huge difference compared to the 15% Nigeria agreed to allocate to address major health issues like malaria, HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis.
Then there’s the issue of funds misappropriation. More money doesn’t automatically mean better results, especially in a country where budget implementation has historically been plagued by inefficiency and corruption. In 2022, the Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria (CIFIPN) said that 70 to 75% of Nigeria’s national budget is stolen or wasted due to corruption in the government at all levels. If this additional revenue isn’t properly managed, Nigerians might not see the benefits of this expanded budget.
We’re hoping to be proven wrong because a 15% inflation rate is literally a need right now.
Tinubu’s budget will finally roll out an increase in pensions
Tinubu’s new budget might not put extra money in young people’s pockets, but according to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), it will add at least ₦32,000 to pensioners’ accounts.
Tolulope Odunaiya, the executive secretary of PTAD, said this pension increase will take effect once the 2025 budgetary funds are released.
But this isn’t exactly something to celebrate because the government has made the promise of a pension increase since October 2024. And it’s not some random giveaway; it’s an increment that’s supposed to come with the salary structure review following the approval of the ₦70,000 minimum wage.
PTAD says it's working with the right agencies to make sure the increment and owed fees are paid once the budget is approved. PTAD also added that it has cleared arrears for some pensioners in the Customs, Immigration, and Prisons Pension Department (CIPPD), Police Pension Department (PPD), and university sector, and it intends to pay every single pensioner.
While all of this sounds nice, we’ll not be handing out any cookies to PTAD because this increment has been lagging for over four months, and pensioners even organised a protest over the delay in November 2024. It’s bad enough that pensioners have been complaining about unpaid gratuities and pensions for years; the payment of this extra ₦32,000 (to which they are well entitled) is the barest minimum, and the government still hasn’t been able to pull that off.
This Week’s Big Question
“Are you voting in 2027 or choosing to face Nigerian lawmakers’ proposed punishment? ”
Abiola’s response - “As much as I'd like to have fun and be creative with this, it's just dark humour that some people even thought of this. Anyways, I'll be voting. They'll be making plans for voting from the diaspora, yeah?”
You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting Abiola’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
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