2023 budget: Buhari sets September to present bill

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has targeted September 2022 to present the 2023 appropriation bill to the National Assembly.

This was disclosed by the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, on Monday in Abuja during training on budget preparation using the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.

The training was organised for more than 4,000 budget officers drawn from about nine hundred government ministries, departments and agencies nationwide.

Akabueze, represented by the Budget Office Director of Expenditure (Socials), Fabian Ogbu, said the Buhari regime was determined to ensure consistent and timely preparation, submission, and approval of annual budgets, as part of its Public Financial Management reforms.

He lamented that MDAs did not study the Budget Call Circular in detail, which resulted in them making avoidable mistakes compared to if they complied with the relevant sections of the Budget Circular.

He said, “The main goal of this training is to provide continuous learning to equip budget personnel with the requisite knowledge, skills and the tools they require to prepare and submit the 2023 budget.

“It has been observed that MDAs do not study the budget circular in detail, as such make mistakes that should ordinarily be avoided if they had complied with relevant sections of the budget cycle.”

Akabueze added that the 2023 budget is being prepared alongside extant federal government policies and guidelines as articulated in the 2023 Budget Call Circular and other relevant laws.