The Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, has tasked the Federal Government on the implementation of the 2024 budget.

Professor Sulaiman made the disclosure on Monday during a seminar organised by the institute in conjunction with the Nigerian Economic Society(NES) in Abuja on the implementation of Budget 2024.

“This seminar would help to provide insight on the kinds of challenges to anticipate for the 2024 fiscal year, contextualise the implications for implementing the 2024 budget, and make recommendations on the way forward.

“I wish to use this opportunity to call on the Federal Government to commence the process of providing a successor document for the National Development Plan (2021-2025), which currently serves as the nation’s medium-term economic blueprint.

A major challenge identified by the institute with the budget process, according to the DG, shows that budget implementation is as successful as the national public procurement process as contained in the Public Procurement Act (PPA), 2007.

He said it would be vital for MDAs to initiate the relevant process for executing projects and programmes provided for in the 2024 budget to avoid tales of delays with the implementation.

He noted that the future of an effective plan-budget link will also require legislating national development plans and providing legislation upon which the gender, youth, and inclusion perspectives of the budget can be anchored.

In his remarks, the President, NES, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, said that the annual budget was the symbol of the economic direction of the country in a year.

He said that the 2024 budget was predicated on a total expenditure of N28.78 trillion with a projected revenue of N19.7 trillion, implying a budget deficit of N10 trillion.

Adenikinju said that other key parameters of the budget included non-debt expenditure of N8.76 trillion, debt service expenditure of N8.2 trillion and capital expenditure N9.99 trillion.