The 2021 Federal Appropriation Act and Nigeria’s National Development

Abstract

This article reviews the Nigeria budgetary process with focus on the 2021 FGN Appropriation, to determine the allocation to the key sectors of Education, Health, Agriculture, Women Affairs, and the Social Investment Programme (SIP). It describes the budgetary process while examining the trend allocation to these sectors as compared to the overall budget size and the recommended international benchmark for these sectors. From the literature reviewed, it is observed that the budgetary process in the country is not inclusive and the allocations to these sectors fell below international benchmark and are incapable of driving the country development priorities. It is therefore concluded in this article, despite the increasing size of the budget annually over the last ten years, (10), allocations to the key sectors remain abysmally low, owing to the misplacement of government priorities, and the inability of the public institutions to effectively deliver public goods and services.