2023 National Budget Roundtable & Panel Discussion

African economies are undergoing unique dynamics with declining government revenues and increasing debts. The situation is typified by Nigeria with increasing population and declining revenue from crude oil exports that has left the country with less money to spend on infrastructure and welfare. Furthermore, there are delays in building new schools and hospitals with a potential negative impacts on socio-economic well-being - if the trend continues. Given the above, national budgeting has been challenging for many African governments – more so, for Nigeria with increasing unemployment and increasing inflation. For instance, the unemployment rate changed from 8.53% (of total labour force) in 2019 to 9.71% in 2020, and increased to 9.79% in 2021. The inflation rate has been on a steady increase in 2019 and skyrocketed in 2021 to 16.95 from 13.25% in 2020. This trend indicates depreciation of the Naira has significant effects on government spending, debt management and budgeting. It becomes a matter of ‘what can the money you earn do?’ One consequence is a rise in criminal activities - kidnapping, armed robbery, online fraud and other cybercrimes.

Amidst the economic realities, budgeting and security challenges, the Nigerian government has been pursuing the national digital economy policy and strategy (NDEPS). This is important because digitalisation has connected economies across the globe into a single marketplace resulting in digital currencies and cryptocurrency. As such, cryptocurrency transactions are increasing with more people considering it a means to avoid unfavourable macroeconomic conditions. Regardless of high cybercrime, there is evidence supporting the importance of the digital economy in attaining sustainable development. Hence, if this potential is to be harnessed in Africa, it is pertinent to consider Nigeria’s experience so far. How has national budgeting been effective in the pursuit of Nigeria’s digitalization objectives in NDEPS?

Against the above background, Covenant University’s Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR) is collaborating with the University of Warwick in the UK, to host the National Budget Roundtable and Panel Discussion (NBR) for 2023. This follows from the success of previous editions of NBR (in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022) hosted by CEPDeR. The 2023 NBR is themed ‘National Budgeting and Digitalisation for Sustainable Development in Africa: The Nigerian Experience.’