President Buhari Presents N7.298tn 2017 Budget To NASS
By Andah John with agency report
President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday presented a proposed N7.298tn 2017 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly.
This budget has an increase of 20.4% over the 2016 figure.
Capital project of N2.24 trillion or 34.7% of is targeted at priority projects such as infrastructure, productivity and employment.
A look at the budget
Key points to note in the latest budget include improved business environment, governance as well as security of lives and property.
The budget is based on a crude oil benchmark price of $42.50 per barrel, with an output of 2.2 million barrels per day.
The expenditure
Government’s expenditure is to be funded with the sum of 4.94 trillion naira, with oil to contribute 1.98 trillion naira of the amount.
The deficit of 3.63 trillion naira, which is 2.18% of GDP, is to be financed through borrowing the sum of 2.23 trillion naira.
Of this sum, 1.7 trillion is expected to come from external borrowing, while 1.254 trillion would be sourced domestically.
Key capital spending provisions would be on power, works and housing, which have been allocated the highest amount of 529 billion naira.
They are followed by transport – 262 billion, social intervention – 150 billion, defence – 140 billion while the judiciary got an increased allocation of 100 billion naira.
The education sector got 50 billion naira, while universal basic education received a direct allocation of 92 billion naira.
Health is also nit left out. The sum of 51 billion naira has been budgeted for the sector.
While addressing the lawmakers, the President gave low crude oil prices as reason why the 2016 budget could not be effectively implemented.
He had given the assurance that there will be no such thing as budget padding in the document.
Buhari further condemned what he termed injecting rogue projects and figures into the financial document.
He said it was unfair to Nigerians and detrimental to the growth of the economy.
