The Director General, Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, has advocated that Nigeria should amend its constitution to. replace the present 36- state structure with six regions.
He was also quoted as saying by Bloomberg that the country needed to reduce its number of cabinet ministers to a maximum of 24 from over 40.
“No country can develop where a large part of its earnings is spent on administrative structures rather than on capital investment,” he stated..
Akabueze said that Nigeria’s current trend of spending more money on running the government than on building new infrastructure was unsustainable,
According to him,low revenue collection and high recurrent costs have resulted in actual capital expenditure below two trillion naira ($4.88 billion) a year for a decade,
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“Hence, the investments required to bridge the infrastructure gap are way beyond the means available to the government,” Akabueze said.
Recurrent spending, allocated towards salaries and running costs, has accounted for more than 75% of the public budget every year since 2011.
Nigeria requires at least $3 trillion of spending over the next 30 years to close its infrastructure gap, Moody’s Investors Service said in November. The country’s tax revenue as a proportion of gross domestic product is one of the lowest globally, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“Huge recurrent expenditure has constrained the provision of good roads, steady power supply, health care services, quality education and quality shelter,” Akabueze said.
