Five numbers from Nigeria’s 2025 budget presented by Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday presented Nigeria’s 2025 appropriation bill to the cheer of the 10th National Assembly with the budget titled “Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity”.

In the course of the plenary, Tinubu gave the breakdown of the N47.96 trillion proposed budget – the highest Nigeria has ever had in naira terms – and what would be allotted to each sector of the economy.

He said the 2025 budget tells a bold and exciting story of the direction his administration will take to revamp the “socio-economic fabric of our society”.

Here are the numbers worthy of note from the budget presentation:

Inflation to decline to 15%

The president said the 2025 budget is expected to beat down inflation which has reached more than a 28-year high, dropping from 34.6 percent in November, 2024 to 15 percent next year. But food inflation, which constitutes more than 50 percent of Nigeria’s headline inflation, is trending upward with food-growing regions threatened with persistent insecurity and flooding.

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Exchange rate to improve to N1,500/1$

Nigeria’s volatile exchange rate is also projected to strengthen to N1,500 from about N1,700 with the aid of the 2025 budget. The naira has been fighting the US dollar since the central bank introduced the electronic foreign exchange matching system. It’s however expected to maintain a positive trend on more supply.

Tinubu targets N34.82 trn in revenue

President Tinubu said his administration would be targeting a total of N34.82 trillion in revenue to finance its budget. This implies the government may have to ensure it meets its 2.06 million barrels per day and widen its revenue collection. For a country whose government revenue to GDP ratio is below 10 percent, the target is in no doubt ambitious.

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Budget deficit of N13.08 trn

While the budget appears to be ambitious with its benchmarks, it comes with a N13.08 trillion budget deficit – a situation where total expenditure exceeds targeted income, highlighting Nigeria’s low revenue problem and suggesting impending debt servicing of about N15.81 trillion in the next fiscal year.

Defence, infrastructure get the lion share of more than N8 trillion

Allocation of the N47.96 trillion budget shows that defence and security takes the chunk of the budget, accounting for N4.91 trillion. This underscores the president’s priority to safeguard the lives of the citizens. infrastructure follows with N4.06 trillion, health 2.48 trillion and education N3.52 trillion.