Description

The budget is a government’s key financial plan. It should enable the government to
achieve the main international objective of poverty reduction by ensuring that basic
services (including, health, education, water, housing, electricity) are available to all
citizens and that progressive taxation is used to fund these services and reduce the
prevailing levels of inequality. This paper considers Nigeria as an example of a major
developing country and considers the extent to which the government’s budgetary process
is achieving these objectives. It also considers some of the major current debates around
fiscal and budget management.