The Nigerian economy has a value of up to $3trillion, according to financial experts, and not the $1trillion projected for 2030 by the Federal Government’s Economic Management Team.

The information was passed to senators in Abuja on Monday during a one-day public hearing on the 2026 budget organised by the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

The committee is chaired by Senator Adeola Solomon Olamilekan (APC, Ogun-West).

Making a submission to the lawmakers, the Chief Executive Officer of a Financial Management firm based in Lagos, CFG Advisory, Mr Adetilewa Adebajo, said all the country needed to do was to cut down on its debts and deficit financing in its national budgets.

The Federal Government projects to spend N58.47trillion in 2026.

Out of the figure, N25.27trn is the deficit component to be funded through borrowing and other sources. Another sum of N5.9trn is captured as debt servicing.

Adebajo noted that such a budget was already a burden to economic growth and could impede any agenda to tap into the full value of the economy.

“Nigeria is not a $1trn economy, but a $3trn economy, considering the fact that it’s the 5th highest exporter of rare earth mineral resources in the world”, he told the lawmakers.

Adebajo observed that Nigeria’s financial market might not be able to cope with the pressure that the government would put on it by continuing to borrow more funds.

He stated, “The government is to borrow N1trn from the capital market every month, making N12rn in a year. So, how would it finance the N25trn deficit?

Adebajo recalled that the government’s borrowing from the market last year was N14trn, arguing further that it would be unwise to also keep borrowing from external creditors.

He offered suggestions on how to plug wastages, saying, “We need to remain alert and proactive. All stakeholders must closely monitor critical sectors to ensure that revenues meant for the government actually reach government coffers.

“So, the country can fully benefit from the positive strides currently being made. Otherwise, what we continue to see is a situation where foreign actors, particularly Chinese interests, come into the country, extract our mineral resources, and leave with enormous value, while Nigeria earns little or nothing in return.

“This is clearly a wake-up call. We must take deliberate steps to ensure that the nation earns appropriate revenue from its natural resources.

“Secondly, there is the issue of revenue projections and their actualisation. Government must deal with realistic figures, not just projections on paper.

“Revenue agencies must be compelled to work with actuals and be held accountable for performance. Revenue-generating agencies need to remain on their toes to meet and, where possible, surpass their targets.

“This has already been happening to some extent, which explains the recent increases in government revenue.

“However, these improvements cannot happen without credible revenue projections and sustained pressure on agencies to perform even better.”

But, Senator Olamilekan replied that much as the government planned to reduce borrowings henceforth, it still would not avoid taking loans completely.

Olamilekan claimed that some of the debt burden on the country dated back to the military era and could not be blamed on the civilian administrations that had been making repayment efforts over the years.

According to him, Nigeria only has a N150trn deficit against a revenue projection of N300trn, which he said was still not too bad.

He said while loans would be taken to fund the 2026 budget, the government’s plan was to cut down on huge borrowing going forward.

He spoke of the government exploring the sale or leveraging of its Joint Venture (JV) assets and other non-debt instruments to navigate ahead, adding that it would fund deficits largely through asset optimisation, as against huge borrowing.

Olamilekan promised that the fiscal distortions of recent years would be addressed through the planned exit from the multiple budget syndrome.

He explained, “There were four budgets running at the same time. We had the 2023 budget, 2023 supplementary budget, then 2024 budget and 2024 supplementary budget running simultaneously.

“That will never happen again. I can assure you that the implementation period of the 2026 budget will not exceed December 31, 2026.”

Earlier, the Minister of State for Finance, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, spoke of the economic blueprint for the year, same as the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamsedeen Ogunjimi.

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