The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has targeted September 2022 to present the 2023 budget appropriation bill to the National Assembly.
Ben Akabueze, the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, said this on Monday in Abuja while conducting a training session on the use of the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System to prepare budgets.
More than 4,000 budget officers from more than 900 national government ministries, departments, and organisations participated in the training.
The Buhari administration is resolved to ensure consistent and prompt development, submission, and approval of annual budgets as part of its Public Financial Management reforms, according to Akabueze, who was represented by the Budget Office Director of Expenditure (Socials), Fabian Ogbu.
He bemoaned the fact that MDAs did not thoroughly read the Budget Call Circular, which led to their committing mistakes that could have been avoided had they done so.
The fundamental objective of this training, he stated, is to offer ongoing learning opportunities to provide budget professionals with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to create and submit the 2023 budget.
“It has been noted that MDAs do not thoroughly read the budget circular, and as a result, they make errors that would typically be prevented if they had complied with pertinent budget cycle portions.”
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.
