The federal government has said a total of N160 billion was voted for consumer credit and implementation of student loan scheme in the 2024 national budget.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Atiku Bagudu made the disclosure yesterday at a press briefing in Abuja. According to him, N100 billion was allocated to consumer credit to revive the manufacturing sector to provide goods and services to Nigerians and support the capacity of consumers. The government describes consumer credit as a catalytic fund that is expected to grow.
He also announced that N50 billion and N10 billion have been budgeted in the signed budget and supplementary budget respectively for the student loan scheme. “We believe that our students should have an additional option.”
Bagudu said the government was still consulting with the relevant stakeholders on the modalities for the implementation of the loan scheme.
He said the disbursement was yet to be done due to the nation’s sluggish procurement system that takes a minimum of 3 months to complete before implementation of the budget item. Senator Bagudu believes that the economy would gain traction if many people could pay for goods and services over some time.
The government also cleared the air about the alleged manipulation of the national budget. The minister told reporters yesterday that the imputes that were made by the lawmakers raised the amount in the proposed bill from President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion which was simply signed by the President.
“In fact, the National Assembly has the last word when it comes to appropriation,” he said, adding “When people talk about padding, I think that the word has been narrowed to a negative form. Whereas in reality, there can be no appropriation without either addition or subtraction of a sum, or agreeing to what was presented, or addition of a new project. And that is a choice, which is a consequence of democracy.”
Senator Bagudu said the government has begun the process of de-risking the nation’s agricultural sector by creating a N100 billion agricultural development fund to attract private sector financing to the sector.
“The consumer credit, we believe, is a very, very important, veritable tool to simulate economic activity. And provide access to goods and services for a lot of people. And a lot of Nigerians who will not otherwise be able to pay for them at a go,” he said while responding to questions at the briefing.