Nigeria’s 2023 budget is expected to have a N12.43 trillion deficit due to import duty waivers and fuel subsidy payments, according to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.

The finance minister had informed the Senate Committee on Finance on Tuesday during an interactive session that the proposed N19.76 trillion budget for 2023 will be greatly undermined by the aforementioned factors, particularly, if fuel subsidy is retained throughout 2023.

The concern, which was equally expressed by revenue generating agencies, prompted the Committee Chairman, Olamilekan Adeola, to ask the minister to critically review both the projected N12.43 trillion budget deficit and N6tn tax and import duty waivers downwards before sending the proposals to the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

Adeola demanded that the minister examine the list of beneficiaries of the N6 trillion waivers for a possible downward review to N3tn, which will minimize the volume of the whole budget deficit.

“The proposed N12.43 trillion deficit for the 2023 budget and N6 Trillion waivers are very disturbing and must be critically reviewed.  Many of the beneficiaries of the waivers are not plowing accrued gains made into expected projects as far as infrastructural developments are concerned.

“The same goes for the tax credit window offered by FIRS to some companies. Billions and trillions of naira can be generated by the government as revenue if such windows are closed against beneficiaries abusing them and invariably provide required money for budget funding with fewer deficits cum borrowings.

“The Nigeria Customs Service should help in this direction by critically reviewing waivers being granted on import duties for some importers just as the FIRS should also review the tax credit window offered to some companies without corresponding corporate social services to Nigerians in terms of expected project executions like road construction,” he said.

Nigeria’s revenue shortfalls have lingered for so long due to the deficiencies in the country’s oil sector. Last month, Nigeria’s oil output dropped to 972,000 barrels per day (bpd), pushing the once largest oil producing country in Africa behind Angola and Libya, according to a report by the Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The latest oil production drop has pushed Nigeria’s oil output far below its OPEC-stipulated 1.4 million barrels per day quota. This means that the hope of oil revenue recovery is not attainable in the short-term.

Nigeria is the only oil-producing country that has failed to cash in on the oil windfall orchestrated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As an oil-based economy, this has compounded the country’s economic growth as other means of revenue generation have fallen short of what is required to fund the budgets.

A key reason for Nigeria’s revenue crisis is the fuel subsidy. In 2022 alone, the subsidy is expected to gulp more than 74.07% of its capital expenditure. The federal government recently put the current daily spending on the petrol subsidy at N18.4 billion.

With the 2023 budget story sounding sadder, the N6.72 trillion mapped out for potential subsidy payment in 2023 signals that Nigeria’s capital expenditure may suffer from further revenue shortfall. Recently, revenue generating agencies have been making excuses for failed revenue remittances, indicating that the projected N12.43 trillion 2023 budget deficit may be exceeded.

I received many LinkedIn messages from the community on how one can begin a journey into “coding” on hardware.  I had noted in a comment that my company is Intel Corp’s only authorized and certified partner in continental Africa (see Intel website https://lnkd.in/eBXEraa8 ) and we actually do a lot of coding. We have access to critical kits which Intel provides to its partners.

However, this coding is not the typical you do with Python, Java, etc. This one involves something deeper where you are programming transistors to create microprocessors which power our modern world. I have called this the “zenith of coding” as you need absolute precision on controlling electrical signals to have functional processors.

How do you account for all the signals in a processor with 10 million transistors (really primitive one)? It requires a new dimension of #coding. My team will plan something and we will explore how to expose this to people who are interested. They are super busy but we will find time.

Comment on Feedback

Comment 1: Coding microcontroller has been there for long and very sweet if you understand binary operation as to how it relate to switching. It is really easier than most people thought. You need to understand how memory, registries and stack work then you can send stream of 010101…. to a machine . I learnt C language while coding processors with MikroC language.

My Response: “Programming microcontroller has been there for long and very sweet if you understand binary operation as to how it relate to switching” – programming MCU is different from digital chip designs. You can design a whole microprocessor via coding but that is NOT  the same as programming MCUs which is what you are referring to. In my note, I lumped both together.

While when we discuss this, the first that comes to mind is the embedded electronics, but understand that making digital chips comes by writing codes. The output is extracted and sent to the foundry where the chip is fabricated. For that one, it is not easy because only few universities actually teach it. And it is very hard work. Indeed, it is a difficult work because you are working at transistor level, not at MCU level.

Comment 2: This is not a new field. There’s a whole industry around embedded systems (i.e., codes onto the microprocessors, directly accessing memory and registers). Anyone interested in this should study, C and assembly language.

My Response: You are looking at one angle. Embedded systems are one part, there is another part where you “code” design microprocessors at CMOS transistor level. For that one, it is not like programming already created microcontrollers or field programmable gate areas. In this one, you are crafting  a processor from scratch. The output is sent to a foundry where the chip is fabricated. That is the zenith of coding because it is about controlling transistors at a deeper level.

Comment 3: In the comments I have read so far [..] is almost the only person that gave a close contribution. Digital Electronics with close emphasis on a subject matter called Adders (in electronics). In Adders so many Logical manipulation goes on to achieve hard coding. Half Adder & Full Adder, the manipulation goes on to binary and quantum Adders. The logic representations helps the computer through binary numbers to be able to recognize all those A B C D and decimal stuff you type on the computer, in electronics we only know ON & OFF , 1 & 0. where ON is 1 and 0 is OFF. To be able to do transistor coding you need to be in love with electronics, Flip Flop & Registers, let me stop here.

In school we read hard acquired sufficient knowledge to transform the world only for us to be never interviewed on our core substance and no one has ever really explored us, the highest question I’ve gotten is simple circuit design. I decided to explore my intelligence once in an interview and the man on the panel decided to shut me down for driving everybody into core Electronics design, his fear for shouting stop lecturing me I still don’t know till this day.

My Response: What Jude discussed was field programmable arrays which you can program already created processors. My zenith was referring to designing microprocessors at transistor level. When you do it, you get the bits and send them to the foundry (special factor) where they are fabricated.  Unlike in the past where people used hand to craft those transistor placements, engineers “code” them. It is not an easy job and not embedded electronics.

Tekedia Institute is excited to welcome ARTSPLIT team to Tekedia Mini-MBA. ARTSPLIT is Africa’s pioneering art marketplace where creators, collectors and investors of art converge. Yes, you create and also buy within an amazing digital ecosystem the team has created. We hope to co-learn with these innovators over the next few weeks. Visit the iOS, Google Playstore, etc to download the app here.

Thank you Onyinye Anyaegbu, Nonso Okpala, Rotimi Awofisibe (ACA,ACITN) – Chartered Accountant, and the whole leadership, for giving Tekedia Institute the opportunity to co-learn with the team.

We also report that ARTSPLIT is funding 1,000 scholarships to Tekedia CollegeBoost for students in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. The selection process will open soon. Thank you ARTSPLIT.