According to President Muhammadu Buhari's directive to have the 2023 Appropriation Bill passed and signed into law by December 31, 2022, the Executive Budget proposal will be presented to the National Assembly (NASS) by September 2022, according to Ben Akabueze, Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation. 

Akabueze made this announcement yesterday at a training session on the GIFMIS-BPS Budget Preparation Subsystem for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Budget Office of the Federation held at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

As part of its Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms, the Federal Government is committed to ensuring continuous and appropriate preparation, submission, and approval of the annual budgets, just as it did for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 budgets, according to Akabueze, who was represented by the Director, Expenditure, Economic, Mrs. Modupeola Lasekan. 

He claimed that in order to accomplish this, the office has already started a number of activities related to the process of preparing the 2023 budget, including engagements and stakeholder consultations with important revenue-generating organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs), the Nigerian Governors Forum, the National Executive Council (NEC), the National Assembly, and the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The 2023 FGN Budget Call Circular and other pertinent laws and regulations, according to the Director-General, are meant to complement current Federal Government policies and guidelines. 

According to him, the budget office has found that MDAs do not carefully read the Budget Call Circular, and as a result, they frequently make errors that could have been prevented if they had followed the pertinent provisions of the Budget Circular. 

He added that one of the training modules will cover important items and sections to note in the 2023 Budget Call Circular. He said that to this end, the budget office had organized the training of more than 4,000 participants involved in budget preparation from roughly 900 MDAs.

The Director General claims that the main objective of the training is to provide ongoing learning opportunities so that budget personnel will be equipped with the necessary information, abilities, and resources to quickly and effectively develop and submit the 2023 Budget. 

You may recall that the Budget Office began using the GIFMIS-BPS in 2017 and has since done so to prepare budgets for the entire service. Since then, every MDA has used the GIFMIS-BPS program to create and submit their budgets online and in "near real time."

This has assisted in addressing some of the difficulties encountered in budget planning in previous years. We want to keep using the GIFMIS-BPS for the creation of the 2023 budget. In order to enhance your experience this year, we also intend to take advantage of some of your input and lessons acquired from previous budget preparation processes. 

In a separate speech, Dr. Sam Omenka, Technical Adviser to the Director General of Budget Office, noted that the budget's prompt submission provides the National Assembly ample time to review and enact it. 

In contrast to the past, when there were lengthy delays in the implementation of the capital plan, he claimed that this will allow for the swift implementation of the budget in January.

Omenka stated that the budget office has also made an effort to make the budget comprehensive and has implemented revenue recognition for institutions and agencies from all industries that produce income as a result of their operations. 

He claimed that in order to ensure that government earnings and expenditures are not underreported as in previous years, the agencies and institutions have been requested to declare their income. 

"Reporting revenue has been increasingly crucial since, over time, some of the funds transferred by MDAs and institutions are typically not included in government income. We must maintain this training, he said, because it will make it easier to accurately document and track government receipts and expenditures.