Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, says the presentation of the N27.5 trillion 2024 budget by President Bola Tinubu, is a right step in the right direction.

Mr Edun said this when he spoke with journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.

“As the president named it a budget of renewed hope, it is a budget that is taking us in the right direction in terms of making sure the economy is stable and making sure there is emphasis and reliance on the private sector.

“The President talked about improving security. The supplementary budget was largely aimed at funding the security architecture so that as he mentioned in his budget speech, there will be emphasis on private-public partnership.

“The N27.5 budget will be financed with about N8 trillion of borrowing. This is a vast improvement on the previous situation.

“So deficit financing as the percentage of the overall economy is halved from over six per cent to just about three per cent and that’s a move from the right direction, that is stability.

“That is really a priority for Mr President,” he said.

Mr Edun also lauded the president on the exchange rate of N750 to a dollar, saying it was realistic.

“We don’t have total control. But that’s the best estimate. If you look at where the exchange rate is now, it looks reasonable.

“The thing about assumptions is that they should be realistic and the thing about estimates is that they should be reasonable.

“In this N27.5 trillion budget, the assumptions are realistic and the estimates are reasonable,” he said.

Also, Abubakar Bagudu, the minister of budget and economic planning, said the President had a track record on budget implementation.

“There have been two supplementary budgets already. One, the N800 million and N500 billion, and the 2023 appropriation.

“The 2024 budget is further to cement the macro-economy. The National Assembly is going to scrutinise the budget and we hope that we will be able to pass it in the next few weeks.

“The budget is coming in good time to allow us a good time to allow for it to be passed Dec. 31.

“We are going to have a budget town hall meeting to ensure that the budget is people-oriented,” he said.

Mr Bagudu added: “We would have a town hall meeting where Nigerians can have a say. We are happy about the budget. We don’t believe that Nigerians should live on palliatives forever but that they get enough capital to live their lives.”

(NAN)