The budget office has released the break down of the 2015 Budget in a presentation that provides a well articulated insight into the workings of the budget. A scroll down to page 14 of the 2015 Budget breakdown suggest that the government has dropped its SURE-P budgeted by a whopping 61.7%, from N268.3billion in last year’s appropriation to N102.5billion this year. In fact, part of the funding from the N102.5billion will augmented from the balance of N49.5billion in 2014. The CME also emphasized that the “actual money for SURE_P in 2015 will depend on average actual market price in the year”.
This to me sounds like the days of SURE-P are numbered which actually isn’t surprising. SURE-P by design is funded from the FG’s share of savings from removal of subsidy. Now that oil prices has crashed by more than 40% in the last 6 months thus affecting FG’s share of revenues, it is logical to see the program being starved of funds.
