The amount budgeted for personnel costs has increased from N2.29tn spent in 2019 to N4.11tn in the proposed 2022 budget, according to data obtained from the budget implementation report of the Federal Government.
This shows an increase of N1.82tn or 79.48 per cent in three years, signalling a rise in the cost of recurrent expenditure.
The PUNCH observed that the personnel cost has been on a steady increase since 2017.
The personnel cost was N1.69tn in 2016. In 2017, it rose to N2.90tn, representing an increase of N1.21tn or 71.60 per cent.
In 2018, the personnel cost rose by N7bn or 2.41 per cent, with personnel costs gulping N2.97tn.
The following year, the personnel cost reduced by N68bn, dropping to N2.29tn. However, the budget rose again in 2020 to N3.05tn, representing an increase of N760bn or 33.19 per cent.
It was the same year that the new minimum wage was first reflected in the budget. This is believed to have contributed significantly to the increment.
In 2021, the cost continued to soar as N3.75tn was budgeted for personnel costs, representing an increase of N7bn or 22.95 per cent.
Of the 3.75tn budget, about N2.57tn had been spent from January to August.
In the latest 2022 budget proposal which has passed the second reading at the Senate, the personnel cost hit an all-time high of N4.11tn, representing an increase of N360bn.
The N4.11tn personnel cost in the 2022 budget proposal does not include allowances for members of the National Youth Service Corps who are not medical doctors, contract staff and anticipated promotion projections of existing staff.
The N4.11tn personnel cost represents 25.08 per cent of the nation’s entire budget and is the single largest component in the budget.
Experts told The PUNCH it was worrisome that despite the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which ought to weed out ghost workers, the personnel cost had continued to rise significantly.
The number of MDAs captured on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System increased from 459 in 2017 to 711 to 2021.
Within the years of the Buhari regime, a total of N20.76tn has been budgeted for personnel costs. This total exceeds the N16.39tn budget in the proposed 2022 budget and is about 63.80 per cent of Nigeria’s debt stock of N35.47tn.
By size, public servants make up less than one per cent of Nigeria’s entire population.
BudgIT, a non-profit organisation, calculated that the 400,000-strong federal civil service, a mere 0.21 per cent of the nation’s population, was earmarked to take 27 per cent of the initial 2020 budget of N10.33tn. The current strength of the federal civil service for 2021 could not be ascertained as of time of going to press.
Experts and organisations have warned that the Federal Government’s personnel cost is rising at a fast pace.
According to them, this is disturbing, as the country still wallows in increasing debts and lags behind in the area of infrastructure.
Nigeria currently struggles with an economic crisis brought upon by the fall in oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to deteriorating revenue, increasing unemployment, inflation and poverty.
The PUNCH had reported that budget deficit had risen to N20.64tn under the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), from 2016 to 2020, with more than N7.97tn borrowed from foreign and domestic sources to fund these deficits.
THE PUNCH
Be the first to comment