Importance of Budget in Nigeria are listed and explained in this article. This is to bring to the minds of Nigerians the needfulness of budget.
Reasons why Budget is important
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A budget is a summary of intended expenditures for predetermined purposes with estimated amounts allocated to foot each.
Budgets are actually financial plans tailored to futuristic incomes, normally for a year. The annual Nigeria Budget is such as reveals what the government plans to spend, how much it wants to spend on each of the items, and its projected income which often reveals the means through which the money to be spent will be generated.
Since obtaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has been drawing up budgets to guide her expenditures to be made against projected revenues. These budgets have both long-term and short-term formats.
What is important is how the budgets are annually revised to meet the changing needs of the people. This article will highlight the importance of the budget in Nigeria.
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Importance of Budget in Nigeria
1. Budgets are a nation’s action plan
A plan is like an architectural drawing for a building, which guides the builders from the foundation-laying phase, until the point where the final brick is laid upon it.
Plans help us to keep in mind what we want to be our endpoint or result. Budgets answer the question: ‘where do we want to be by the end of this year?’
The development goals, from educational development to agricultural development to infrastructural development are all covered in the budgets.
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2. Budgets spell out the role of all government parastatals
For instance, if the Nigerian annual budget of a certain year requires that more rural farmers are empowered across the Federation and a certain amount allocated to that, we know that the onus is on the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, together with other actors in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to design, implement and efficiently monitor a program which would bring about the empowerment of rural farmers.
3. Through budgets, the Federal Government will be able to carry every state along
The temptation to spend national resources only on a leader’s state of origin is overcome through budgets. Development plans and national expenditures are spread around the state of the Federation, unevenly but with all fairness, after putting into consideration the numerical size of the people and other economic factors.
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4. Budgets make for better communication among government key leaders
Synergy cannot proceed smoothly without effective communication between and among group members. The Federal Government of Nigeria, just like other governments, works together as a team to achieve set goals and better the lives of the electorate.
A good budget brings all the leaders to the point where we can say, they speak the same language, and proceed in the same direction, hence communication is easier and progress is ensured.
For checks and balances and also evaluation of performances, budgets are great tools because it gives a benchmark of achievements to be met within a year.
It is, therefore, easier for the government to compare what she has done against what she planned to do, spot the deficits and work towards improved performance.
