The director-general of the Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, has proposed the creation of six regions across the federation in Nigeria.

The Guardian said he recommended that each of the region with their own governments to replace the existing 36 States.

Akubueze told Bloomberg at a virtual presentation on Tuesday that Nigeria’s current trend of spending more money on running the government than on building new infrastructure is unsustainable.

The DG stated that low revenue collection and high recurrent costs have resulted in actual capital expenditure below two trillion naira ($4.88 billion) per year for a decade.

He also declared that for the reduction of the number of cabinet ministers to a maximum of 24 from more than 40 along with the federal ministries to about 20 from the current 27.

“No Country can develop where a large part of its earnings is spent on administrative structures rather than on capital investment,” Akabueze said.

According to him, “Recurrent spending, allocated towards salaries and running costs, has accounted for more than 75% of the public budget every year since 2011,” Akabueze said.

“Hence, the investments required to bridge the infrastructure gap are way beyond the means available to the government”.

Bloomberg reports that annually, Nigeria requires at least $3 trillion of spending over the next 30 years to close its infrastructure gap, according to Moody’s Investors Service said in November.

The Nigeria’s tax revenue as a proportion of gross domestic product is one of the lowest globally, according to the International Monetary Fund.

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