The Federal Government has settled over N2 trillion in outstanding capital budget obligations from the 2024 fiscal year, with no pending commitments left unprocessed.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun made this known on Thursday at a Ministerial Press Briefing in Abuja.
“In the last quarter, we did pay to contractors over N2 trillion to settle outstanding capital budget obligations. That is from last year.
“At the moment, we have no pending obligations that are not being processed and financed. And the focus will now shift to 2025 capital releases,” he added.
The Minister noted further that there is “an important stakeholder engagement going on re-emphasising the orderliness and for efficiency that despite appropriation, it is when authorized or when funds are made available and authorized for spending that government entities that are procuring should enter into binding commitments of government.”
States’ fiscal balance increased from N2.8 trillion to N7.1 trillion since H1 2023
Edun also revealed that the government has been making regular repayments of past deductions to the Federation Account, settling funds legitimately owed to subnational governments.
This, he explained, has strengthened the fiscal position of states across the country.
He said, “Since the first half of 2023, the combined fiscal balance of the states has grown from 1.8% of GDP to 3.1% that is from N2.8 trillion to N7.1 trillion which is a surplus. That means that the states have been provided funding that has now allowed them to be in surplus.
“And of course, that gives them the greater capacity to invest. From economic standpoint, it must be said that the increase in spending of the states has in fact gone into capital expenditure,” the Minister added.
Edun restates FG’s medium term goal remains to hit 7% GDP annual growth
The Minister reiterated that the President Bola Tinubu administration’s mid-term goals remains to get to 7% annual growth GDP driven by critical investments by government, private investments, jobs creation, and higher incomes.
“To achieve these,” the Minister stated, “we are looking attract private sector investments and expand PPP arrangements across agriculture, education, health, manufacturing, and technology.”
“Our fiscal stability target include: 3.5% of GDP as fiscal deficit; revenue-to-GDP less than 50% and debt-to-GDP of 60% and tax-to-GDP at 18% tax revenue,” Edun said.
He stated further that the government’s economic strategy is anchored on two interrelated objectives and goals which are: “First, to achieve a stable macroecomic environment where private sector investments can thrive and be sustained indeed across all sectors. And secondly, to build a stronger government, is public saving effort. So, that there is funding for critical investments in education, health, and infrastructure as well as agriculture as the foundational pillar for rapid, sustained and inclusive growth.”
He stated that despite the global economic challenges, Nigeria is diversifying its exports.
“We have a competitive exchange rate and other conditions which allows us to diversify our exports particularly under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA),” Edun noted.
What you should know
In January 2025, Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government was facing challenges redeeming maturing promissory notes and other debt obligations, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) declined requests for overdrafts.
- Nigeria’s GDP grew by 3.13% year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of 2025, according to the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
- This marks a solid improvement from the 2.27% growth recorded in Q1 2024 and reflects the continued resilience of the economy, underpinned by strong performances in the services and industry sectors.
- In nominal terms, GDP rose to N94.05 trillion in Q1 2025 from N79.51 trillion in Q1 2024, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.30%.
The growth has been broad-based led by trade, communications, and construction with the fastest growing areas being rail transport, electricity, and oil refining as well as crop production.
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