By Kadiri Abdulrahman

An economist, Mr Tope Fasua, has advised the Federal Government to improve on the budgeting system to check deficit financing and make the annual budgets more impactful.

Fasua, who is the founder of Global Analytics Consulting Ltd, a consulting firm gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja.

He was speaking against the backdrop of the recently passed 2021 budget.

He suggested that if capital budgets were done on a rolling basis, instead of having them annually, infrastructural development would be sustainable.

He advised the government to cut down on running cost in the bureaucracy to enable the 2021 budget to have optimum impact on the mass of the Nigerian populace.

“Capital budgets should be done on a more sustainable basis instead of annually.

“This way, most of the projects would be completed on schedule.

“Each budgetary allocation should be tied to specific projects before funds are released.

“This would be more impactful than the envelope system whereby ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) gets budgetary to be utilised as they dim fit,’’ he said.

He, however, called for improved funding of the budget to check deficit.

“Funding remains a problem and that is what leads to deficit financing.

“Unfortunately, we have found ourselves in a difficult scenario due to the COVID-19 pandemic and falling crude oil prices and we just have to go borrowing like most other countries in the world.

“Government should ensure that our borrowings are effectively utilised for optimum impact.

“We must continue to remind ourselves that we have a development challenge to defeat.’’

NAN reports that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2021 budget into law on Dec. 31, 2020.

The National Assembly had earlier passed the budget on Dec. 21, 2020. (NAN)