For the second year in a row, the budget allocation for Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy has decreased, despite its significant contributions to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Minister of Finance and Budget Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, presented the 2024 budget, revealing that the communications ministry is expected to utilize N28.54bn. This marks a notable decrease of 39.31% from the N47.02bn allocated in 2023.
The ministry experienced a sharp decline of 70.93% in its budget allocation in 2023 after receiving N159.87bn in 2022. The breakdown for 2024 includes N20.25bn for personnel costs, N698.59m for overhead, and N7.59bn for capital spending. Consequently, the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy is set to have one of the lowest anticipated expenditure figures for the year.
The reduced allocation may be attributed to the government’s new approach, expecting the private sector to finance numerous capital projects due to a decrease in government revenue. Minister Abubakar Bagudu emphasized during the budget presentation, “Equally on infrastructure spending, part of the instruction of Mr. President to the cabinet is that, as he has done in Lagos, we have to bring in private sector investments into infrastructure.”
He further highlighted, “He has mandated all ministries to examine how to access investors who are willing to put money into infrastructure. What the government can put into infrastructure is small compared to what the private sector can bring.”
