N100trn budget by 2026 possible — Agbakoba

Former Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, President, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has said there’s possibility of the nation’s budget hitting N100 trillion in 2026.

Agbakoba, while reacting to the N50 trillion national budget in a statement, insisted that there won’t be production if the government does not cut waste and consumption.

He urged the President Tinubu-led government to curtail inflation by encouraging productivity.

He said: “The big budget decision, I was not surprised that our national budget has reached N50 trillion for 2025. I predicted this possibility five years ago. We are simply not collecting potential revenue.

“Thanks to two men, the possibility of hitting the N100 trillion budget by 2026 is a viable possibility. I think we are concentrating on the tax side of revenue and ignoring the governance side. If the twin efforts of tax and governance revenue are escalated, we ought to hit N500 trillion budget annually by 2030.

 To do this requires innovation. First, bureaucratic procedures must give way to practical outcomes. Second is big leadership. Third is easing the hardship in the land by quantitative easing and big-ticket palliatives, so that all fees are waived at primary and secondary schools and health care is made free like the NHS in the UK.