Mixed reactions have trailed the 2010 budget presented by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday.
While some hailed the budget, describing it as "moderate" given the global recession, others said the amount earmarked for capital expenditure is not enough.
Commenting on the budget yesterday, the Managing Dir-ector of Economic Associates, Dr. Ayo Teriba, said the budget was “appropriate" given the fact that Nigeria was just coming out of the global recession.
Given this scenario, he said the capital expenditure at N2trillion was in order, stressing that the Federal Government should let the country’s resources improve before embarking on huge capital expenditure.
Teriba also said that raising Nigeria’s benchmark oil price to $57 per barrel is "realistic."
He also noted that another cheering news about the 2010 budget is that the government this time around, is not stating that it is going to run deficit budget like that of last year, which exerted tremendous pressure Nigeria's exchange rate - that has lost about 20 per cent of its value.
The Chief Executive of the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA), Mr Wale Abe, also hailed the budget, saying the president recognised the fact that the economy is still in a slow down.
He said since the economy is not expected to record any dramatic change next year, the president was right in his budget assumptions in areas such as the benchmark exchange rate of N150/$1.
Abe said economic developments globally also support the benchmark oil price of $57/barrel but added that the federal government should religiously implement the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta to realise the estimated output of 2.088 million bpd.
He said the essence of a budget is for economic development, stressing that if the 2010 budget can be well implemented, projections for 2011 will be better.
“The nation can’t manage exchange rate and interest rate at the same time. We need to trade off and the authorities are recognising that” said Abe.
But the immediate past president of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Mr Samuel Nzekwe, said his primary concern with the budget are in two fold: the is lack of effective implementation and the second improper sectoral allocations.
He decried the poor implementation of the country’s yearly appropriations, stressing that the reported under performance of the 2008 budget by the National Assembly at about 30 per cent was shocking.
According to him, besides the numbers of the budget, lack of implementation is the undoing of the Yar ‘Adua fiscal regime.
On the 2009 sectoral budgetary allocations, Nzekwe said given the dearth of infrastructure in the country as well as projects crying for attention, the about N1.3 trillion capital expenditure projection is grossly insufficient.
He pointed out that the 6000 megawatts electricity target for 2009, as contained in the budget is not enough, adding that the country can do more than that.
‘I would have wanted more to be allocated to education, power, the police than what was allocated” he added.
Immediate past President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and Managing Director of Signet Investments Limited, Mr. Oladipo Aina, said the government should focus more resources to the improvement of the infrastructure.
He said: “Although I have not seen the breakdown of the capital expenditure, the best thing for the government to do is focus on infrastructure. If we want the economy to move forward, the problem of infrastructure should be tackled once and all and lets us move on. The problem of poor infrastructure is killing small businesses that are supposed to provide employment in the country. Therefore, whatever capital expenditure the government is proposing for 2010, infrastructure should take the lion share.”