Minister of Finance and Coordinating minister for the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala? yesterday informed the House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance that the nation’s economic agenda was hinged on reducing the country’s recurrent expenditure in order to concentrate on developing infrastructure in the country.
The minister, who was accompanied by the director of Budget, Bright Okongwu and the permanent secretary of the ministry, said government had, while preparing the 2012 budget, taken cognisance of happenings in global economies.
Acknowledging that the task would be difficult if the deficit in annual budgets is not drastically pruned, Okonjo-Iweala said, “Our expenditure pattern has been very volatile and unsteady. This is not healthy at all. We want to cut recurrent expenditure and restrict it to below 70 per cent of annual budget. That is the reason we have equally been waging war against ghost workers and ghost pensioners.”
The minister said strategies have already been designed to achieve a total transformation of the economy by reducing deficit funding of budget and increase revenue base for optimal implementation, adding that attention will be focused on blocking revenue leakages and ensuring that revenues accrued to the Federal Government do not get diverted.
Okonjo-Iweala? also informed the lawmakers that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is committed to the policy of restricting budget deficit to three percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).