Nigeria

FG reveals plans to sell government properties to fund 2021 budget

Friday, January 15, 2021 at 12:33 PM by Kess Ewubare

- The federal government has disclosed how it plans to fund the 2021 budget

- The minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, has revealed how national assets would be used to fund the budget

- The government is hoping to use funding of the budget to boost the Nigerian economy

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The ministry of finance has confirmed the plan by the Nigerian government to sell some government-owned properties to fund the 2021 budget.

Nigeria’s finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, at a presentation in Abuja on Tuesday, January 12, told stakeholders that the government plans to sell and concession government-owned properties and non-oil assets.

FG reveals plans to sell government properties to fund 2021 budget — Zainab Ahmed has given a breakdown of the approved 2021 budget. @ZShamsuna
Source: Twitter

According to Premium Times, a copy of the presentation by the minister showed that the sales of government property and non-oil asset sales were listed under the additional financing section of the document.

The document, however, did not disclose the companies that have been put up for sale, neither did it state the expected revenue from the sales.

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Sokoto emerges highest-performing state as FG disburses ₦123.348bn grants to states

In addition to selling off national assets, the federal government disclosed that it intends to finance the 2021 budget through borrowing from special accounts.

Meanwhile, the Debt Management Office, the government agency in charge of Nigeria's debt profile, has released a breakdown of Nigeria's external debt stock as of Wednesday, September 30, 2020.

The document containing the breakdown which was accessed by Legit.ng on Tuesday, January 4, indicates that Nigeria's total external debt stands at $31.98 billion.

The loans were obtained from international financial institutions such as the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, and others.

In other news, the Nigerian government has disbursed ₦123.348billion (USD324.6million) as performance-based grants to states to 32 states in the country.

In a report by The Nation, the funds were shared under the States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results.