Business Day Newspaper has estimated that the proposed All Progressives Congress Manifesto will gulp a total of N53 Trillion over four years.
Business Day concludes that the cost of “Building a New Nigeria”, which is the theme of the APC Manifesto will require an initial bill of N6.23 trillion in 2015/2016 compared to the N4.46 trillion “Transition Budget 2015” outlined by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal government.
Costing all APC proposals during the course of electioneering, Business Day estimates that the creation of three million jobs a year will cost a total of N10.6 billion additional public sector wages at the current minimum monthly wage of N18,000.
An immediate pay increase for all five security services (Army, Navy, Airforce, Police and Intelligence) proposed in the APC manifesto could cost an additional N246 billion.
The one free school meal daily for all primary school children will cost about N1.17 trilllion per year if N250 is spent per child.
The party also proposed direct conditional monthly social security payment for 25 million of the poorest Nigerians and this could easily amount to N1.26 trillion based on an assumption of US$1.25 (N210) cash payment per day.
To bridge Nigeria’s 17 million housing deficit, APC would need about N3.5 trillion annually to achieve its one million housing target per year for the next decade and a long term plan to increase health and education spending to 35 per cent of the budget by 2025, from the incumbent government’s 15 per cent of budget, would add an estimated N81.16 billion of spending yearly.
Business Day also noted that the APC Manifesto seeks to redirect public spending to achieve a “50:50” balance of recurrent and capital expenditure by 2025; a feat yet to be achieved by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999.