2025 budget projections unrealistic – Analyst, Abia

A political analyst, Basil Abia, has said that the projections of the 2025 budget proposal presented by President Bola Tinubu at the National Assembly are unrealistic.

Recalls that President Tinubu, in his presentation to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, said the budget aims to bring down inflation from its current 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent next year.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today a few hours after Tinubu’s budget presentation, Abia said that it was impossible to reduce inflation to 15 per cent next year when crude oil production is below two million barrels per day.

The projections are not realistic and the most important thing I think Nigerians should understand is what are the assumptions driving those projections.

“Now, if you say you want to do 15 per cent headline inflation rate on aggregate for 2025, the core drivers, you have to be able to show us that you are going to realistically drop down those drivers, reduce their efficacy, and their frequency.

“Unfortunately, you cannot have a 15 per cent headline inflation rate when you are producing less than two million barrels per day.

Now, I know they are projecting two million barrels per day, but it is impossible to do when you are currently producing 1.5 million barrels per day,” Abia said.

According to the President, the exchange rate will improve from approximately N1,700 per dollar to N1,500.

Highlights of the N49.7 trillion budget showed that N4.91tn goes into defence and security; N4.06tn will be injected into health, while N2.4tn goes into education.