President Muhammadu Buhari is set to present the 2019 budget to the National Assembly, following the approval of the budget for onward transmission to the National Assembly, on Friday by the Federal Executive Council, FEC.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma stated this while briefing State House Correspondents after the Emergency Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammmadu Buhari.
Details of the budget was not made available to State House Correspondents, just as the Minister declined to specifically state when the budget will be presented to the National Assembly
But BusinessDay checks revealed that the budget will be presented any moment from now.
Udo Udoma who refused to speak on details in the budget said it is the prerogative of the President to do so.
“ l will be going beyond my mandate if l should disclose the details of the budget, as you are well aware, that is the sole prerogative of Mr. President”
Asked when the budget will be presented, Udoma disclosed that “ the date will be fixed after all necessary due consultations with the National Assembly”
There are indications that FEC also approved a new projections based on the prevailing economic realities as the initial projections were altered in the wake of current economic realities based on fall in prices of crude oil in the international market.
President Muhammadu Buhari had presided over an emergency meeting of the Federal Executive Council FEC on Friday, solely summoned for that purpose .
Federal Executive Council FEC , Wednesday 24th October, 2018,had approved a total of N8.73T budget for 2019, about N400b lower than the N9.2T approved for 2018
He disclosed that although federal government will still borrow to fund the 2019 , budget but added that borrowing will be reduced in 2019.
The MTEF / FSP is designed to translate the strategic development objectives of the economic Recovery and Growth Plans ERGP into a realistic and implementable budget framework for the medium term
Key highlights of the 2019 budget include oil price benchmark of $60 , oil production of 2.3m barrels per day, exchange rate of N305 to 1USD, Gross Domestic Product GDP growth rate of 3.01% and a budget size of N8.73T, about N400b less than the N9.2T of 2018.
There are however indications that these might be greatly altered in the wake of recent fall in crude oil prices on the international spot market
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that FEC also granted approval for a loan of $1.5m from the African Development Fund to Finance the multinational Lagos to Abidjan corridor highway development project study.
The multinational project will be a highway with six lanes, dual carriage way project that will involve five countries , including Nigeria, Benin Republic , Republic of Cote D’Ivore, Ghana and Togo.
The Minister said the decision was taken at the 42nd meeting of the Authorities of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS, in 2013.
“The African Development Bank in 2016, as a follow up, approved the total sum of $13.5m for the whole project to finance both the study in form of a loan as well as a grant”
She disclosed that the entire fund had been distributed amongst the participating countries and the component for Nigeria is $1.5m.
“The FEC has approved that we accept this facility, so that the project study can be commissioned towards the planing of the execution of the highway project itself”
