The Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) Working Paper No. 57, entitled “Federal government support for agriculture in Nigeria: Analysis with a public expenditure lens”, and co-authored by Chinedum Nwoko, Amarachi Grace Ikejiofor, Nchedo Theresa Nnaji, and Tewodaj Mogues, is now published. The paper provides a broad view of public sector support to agriculture in Nigeria, through the lens of the allocation of public expenditures by the federal government in support of the sector. The authors consider the adequacy and stability of agricultural public spending during the period of 2007 to 2016, drawing on data from the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, and other sources. Government expenditures for agriculture fell far short of the African Union target of 10 percent of total expenditures in every year analyzed—ranging from a low of 0.8 percent to a high of 1.8 percent, except in one outlier year (2009), when disbursements shot up to 5.8 percent. The authors argue that even considering that the federal government in Nigeria is supposed to play a limited role in agriculture, as compared to state governments, these are rather low allocation shares. Public expenditures for agriculture were also volatile, but this feature is not unique to the sector—other sectors faced more dramatic instabilities that arise from features of Nigeria’s public finance management system. Moreover, in addition to low budget allocation shares consistent and significant underspending of the approved budget was seen in all but two years from 2004 to 2016. Underspending reached as low as 40.7 percent. Both excess and underspending represents fiscal indiscipline. Neither is good for planning and ultimately undermines allocatively and technically efficient allocation of scarce public resources to support the sector.
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