The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday said it was waiting on the National Assembly to give a date for President Muhammadu Buhari to present next year’s budget.
The council last Friday during a special session presided by Buhari approved the budget proposal for next year’s fiscal calendar. This year’s budget was presented to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Buhari on November 7, 2017.
While fielding question from State House reporters at the end of yesterday’s FEC meeting, the Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udoma, said the budget had since been ready.
Udoma who briefed reporters alongside his Information counterpart, Lai Mohammed and that of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, said the Council was waiting for the National Assembly to give a date for the presentation.
“As you already know, the budget is ready. We are liaising with the National Assembly because they are to give us a date. If they say today, we will go. The budget is ready,” he said.
The FEC had on 24th October, this year approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for the 2019 -2021 to provide template for the 2019 budget.
In the MTF/FSP, N8.73 trillion was proposed for the 2019 fiscal calendar which is N400bn lower than that of this year. Also, the price of crude oil per barrel was pegged at $60, exchange rate at $305 and daily crude oil production was put at 2.3million by the FEC.
…NBS’s GDP report shows our plans are working
Meanwhile, the Council yesterday said that the report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has indicated that the country’s plans on the revival of the economy are working.
Udoma said “Today (Wednesday) I reported to the FEC that we have seen steady recovery from the recession period. The report indicates that the economy, when measured by real GDP, grew at 1.81percent in the 3rd quarter 2018, compared to 1.5percent in the 2nd quarter of 2018.”
He said the council was particularly encouraged to note that economic growth continues to be driven by the non-oil sector which grew by 3.32percent in the 3rd quarter.
“This has been the strongest growth in non-oil GDP in 12 consecutive quarters since the fourth quarter of 2015,” he said.
N7.13bn approved for coastal waterways security
Also, the council has approved the contract for the protection of six sections of the country’s coastal ways to six companies at the cost of $22.995m, equivalent to N7bn.
Ameachi who spoke on the contract, said it was awarded to enhance the security at the coastal ways of the country.