Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has recently said that the country expects its budget deficit to double to 2.2 trillion naira ($11 billion) in 2016 as the government plans to revive a flagging economy by tripling capital expenditure.
Buhari told the National Assembly that Africa’s Nigeria will borrow as much as 900 billion naira abroad to fund the deficit, which equals 2.16 percent of gross domestic product, while some 984 billion naira would be borrowed at home.
The budget drawn up for 2015 by the previous government had envisaged a year ago a deficit equal to just 0.79 percent of GDP.
Revenues of around 3.9 trillion naira, of which only 820 billion naira would come from key oil revenues, is expected in the coming year Buhari said.
Tax collection will be improved and non-oil industries such as agriculture and mining promoted, he added. Despite the depressed oil prices, Buhari expected Nigeria’s economy to grow by 4.4 percent next year.
In the third quarter of 2015 economy growth slowed to 2.84 percent from 6.23 percent a year earlier. The previous government’s budget had penciled in growth for all-2015 of 5.5 percent.
