Buhari signs budget

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, had said the 2016 budget may not be implemented 100 per cent because of the late signing.

But he was quick to add that the aim of the administration will be to implement the fiscal plan 100 per cent since it is a law.

Udoma said this while speaking to journalists immediately President Buhari appended his signature to the budget at an occasion witnessed by the ministers, members of the National Assembly, chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress and other top government functionaries.

“Our aim will always be 100 per cent implementation.

“We know that because we started late we may not achieve it but 100 per cent achievement is our aim. We start with that aim because the budget is a law and we try to implement it as quickly as we can,’’ the Minister said.

He also said the budget was predicted on 38 dollars per barrel of oil benchmark, and 2.2 million barrels of crude oil production per day.

The Minister said the National Assembly did not do much distortions to key assumptions in the budget.

He however acknowledged that the budget signed was what slightly lower than what the President presented to the National Assembly.

A statement from the Minister office signed by James Akpandem, his media aide later indicated the Key Revenue Assumptions of the Bill as proposed by the Executive was retained by the National Assembly.

Also, all the key revenue assumptions proposed by the Executive are retained, including the benchmark oil price of $38 per barrel, oil production volume of 2.2mbpd and exchange rate of N197/US$.

The statement indicted that an aggregate budget of N6.06 trillion was passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President.

The statement further noted that the Executive had proposed N6.077, implying a decrease of about N17 billion in the budget signed into law by the President and implied reduction in the fiscal deficit from 2.16% of GDP to 2.14% of GDP.

Udoma said his office will set up a committee to monitor the implementation of the 2016 budget while the Executive has already kicked off the process of compiling the 2017 budget to ensure a speedier passage.

He expressed the hope that the 2017 budget would be passed early as the executive intention is to submit the bill in October to the National Assembly.

“The ministry presented a memo to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and got approval for a time table for the 2017 budget.

“So, as we are finishing with this budget, we are starting on 2017 and our intention is that the budget should reach the National Assembly early in October to give them enough time to pass the budget before the end of the year.

“As you know, the most important time, particularly for road construction is the dry season and if you can get the
budget out in December you can now start early to implement.

He added that the Ministry will increase it tempo of consultations with the National Assembly and other stake holders to ensure speedy passage of the 2017 so that the nation can go back to a situation of a full January to December implementation of the spending plan.

Also speaking to journalists at the presidential villa, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed said FEC had approved a monitoring and evaluation framework for the 2016 budget that the ministry submitted.

The framework, she said will guide the implementation of the budget.

She also added that the ministry has developed a specific implementation guideline for the implementation of the 2016 budget.

The guideline would be disseminated to all ministries, departments and agencies, according to her, would be monitored and reported upon on a quarterly basis to FEC.