2017 Nigerian Budget Finally Signed as Acting President Explains Delay

fter 5 months into 2017, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday finally signed the 2017 Appropriation Act into law in the presence of the principal officers of the National Assembly and other top government officials.

 

The budget, christened: ‘Budget of Economic Recovery and Growth’, has a revenue projection of N5.08tn and an aggregate expenditure of N7.441tn. The projected fiscal deficit of N2.36tn is to be financed largely by borrowing.

 

Shortly after signing the document into law at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Osinbajo described the budget as an important milestone in the nation’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan that was unveiled in April by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He commended the Ministry of Budget and National Planning for preparing a good document, and the National Assembly for the rancour-free manner in which it was passed.
Osinbajo, however, explained that he delayed the signing of the budget because of the disagreements the Executive had about the changes introduced to the document by the Legislature.
He said the Executive’s stance was that the changes would affect some of the Federal Government’s priority programmes and would make implementation difficult or even impossible.

Osinbajo explained that he finally decided to sign the document after the leadership of the National Assembly gave a commitment to reinstate the budgetary allocations for all the important Executive projects, such as the standard gauge railway projects, the Mambilla power project, the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, among others, which the lawmakers had reduced to fund some of the new projects they introduced. Punch reported