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Tag: 2017 budget

  • 2017 budget will be ready after Easter – Reps

    2017 budget will be ready after Easter – Reps

    The 2017 budget will not be ready until after the Easter celebrations, the House of Representatives has said.

    The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrasak Namdaz, disclosed this while briefing journalists on the weekly activities of the Green Chamber on Thursday.

    He said there is no way the 2017 budget will be ready before the resumption of members from the three- week Easter break.

    The Easter break will commence on April 11.

    Namdaz said: “Hopefully, we will pass this budget when we come back from the Easter break.

    “Even the federal government is taking advantage of the non-passage of the 2017 budget.

    “You were in the plenary today (Thursday) when the Minister of Budget and National Planning said if they’re able to reconcile some figures, they are likely to approach us (for inclusion in the budget).

     

  • I can’t reverse Ndume’s suspension, Says Saraki

    I can’t reverse Ndume’s suspension, Says Saraki

    …Crisis inevitable for development, says Dogara

    The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Monday said that he has no power to reverse the suspension of Senator Ali Ndume from the Senate.

    Ndume was recently suspended for six months by the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly.

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Saraki said that the issue of Ndume’s suspension was beyond him.

    He said “We should try and understand how the parliament works, I wish I had such powers these powers you give me I wish I had them, the President or Speaker is first among equals they are just presiding officers but unfortunately you know the legislative arm is the youngest people don’t understand, people give us this powers that we have, decisions that are taken in plenary is decision of all but I have a role to be able to convey the message.

    “I will convey the message of the visit of the Governor of Borno and the Senate is one, we are all one family there will be issues like that, there is nothing that is sacrosanct or rigid.” he said

    He also disclosed that the National Assembly is working hard on the 2017 Budget.

    According to him, one of the reasons for visiting the President is to let him know how far the National Assembly has gone on the 2017 budget.

    He said “We are on course as you note last week we did ask all the sub committees to submit their reports to appropriation all that has been done now, it’s now collation and review then hopefully it will be passed very soon.

    On the suspension of screening of Resident Electoral Commissioners, he said “As I said this is a routine meeting, there are many things that is important but there are other things that is even more important to do which is the budget.

    “We talked also about the INEC bill that we have passed I took the president through some of the areas, very important areas because you know the President over many years is somebody that has gone to many elections and seen, so that was something he was really excited about, some of the new amendments like electronic voting, talks about electronic process for collation, those are landmark achievements that we hope that very soon the House will concur and will all come here for the President to assent.

    “Some of these other issues it will happen but I don’t think it’s a major issue, but we are still moving ahead and still consulting.” he said

    On his views on the reconciliatory committee set up, he said “Good development, but like I said there will always be issues on one or two things, it doesn’t mean that it is the foundation of it, when you have an arm of government that has to do with confirmation there will always be, for example the NDDC bill we rejected 3 people from NDDC we keep on moving, we are all part of one government that is why despite all these, still major decisions are taken, like I said we did a critical amendments on INEC by Tuesday or Wednesday. For the first time in the history of the legislature, we are going to lay a report on the PIB for consideration, it has never happened, for the past 20 years it has not gotten to this stage, so its work in progress for the interest of Nigeria.

    “Don’t let us get distracted by one or two infractions, it’s bound to happen, even America that we are copying even today as we are watching, see what is happening on the Supreme court these are things that happen on the part of democracy but I can reassure Nigerians that it’s just a drop in the ocean, it is not an issue that should stir the whole nation, be rest assured.

    Asked if the relationship between legislature and executive is cordial, he said “It is cordial, you cannot examine it based on NDDC, based on EFCC, we have other issues, we have ministerial nominees that we are going to be working on, we have the budget that is more important, we have INEC, PIB we have so many important things and I think it’s a mixture of all that should guide us, don’t let us over heat on some of these issues.”

    Speaking further on his visit to the Villa, he said “As you know this is a routine, it’s part of the consultation and collaboration that we observed that has helped in improving the workings together, it’s just a routine and review, most important issue now is the budget.”

    Also speaking with journalists, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu ‎Dogara, said that his visit to the seat of power was routine.

    He said “It baffles me when people see you visit Mr. President they will think something is wrong, nothing is wrong, it is routine visits‎.

    According to him, the face-off between the executive and legislature over the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, is not a crisis.

    He said “You might look at it as crisis but I don’t look at it as crisis. You know I have always said this that as a government our value will be the problems we have solve.

    “We can’t be remembered for avoiding, we can’t be remembered for running away from problems, it is only when‎ we provide solution to some of the things you refer to as crisis and we look at it as opportunities to begin the new that people will now remember us for putting down enduring legacies.

    “But when we run away from everything that appears to be trouble we will not make it.

    Asked whether he has solved the problem from the meeting,  he said “I tell you they will overcome it. I’m not in the Senate and I am not the Spokesperson for the Senate so the Senate will speak for themselves.

    On whether the planned protest against the National Assembly was manipulated from outside, he said “I wouldn’t know, this is a democracy we are running and we have to open the space to civil society, to everyone who feel aggrieved to be able to air his grievances.

    “So, if they have grievances against the institution of the legislature we will take it. You see the point is we should never run away from crisis, crisis are always wonderful opportunities for us to begin the new, for us to set new boundaries, for us to begin to examine things in a new way.

    “So we should welcome crisis, they are the engines that always propel growth and progress. So if anyone think he has issues with the national assembly let him come and we will have the opportunity to explain, that is the beauty of democracy,” he said.

  • FG extends tenure of 2016 budget capital elements

    FG extends tenure of 2016 budget capital elements

    The Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Idris Ahmed has issued a Circular extending the tenure of the Capital elements  of the 2016 Budget until May 5, 2017 or the passage of the 2017 Budget, whichever is the earliest, Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has announced.
     
    Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies have been urged to take note of the content of the Circular.

  • Liquidity crisis: Financial experts decry non-passage of 2017 budget

    Some financial market operators on Monday called on the National Assembly to fast track the passage of the 2017 Budget to boost liquidity in the economy and ensure its effective implementation.

    They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that budget approval was necessary to stimulate the economy through government spending.

    Mr Sewa Wusu, Head Research, SCM Capital Ltd., called for the quick passage of the budget to stimulate economic activities, noting that non-passage of the budget was affecting various sectors of the economy.

    Wusu said the late passage would affect the budget implementation, especially the capital budget.

    He said the budget approval should be hastened for government to hit the ground with implementation as the highest spender in the country.

    Wusu, however, attributed the zigzag performance at the stock market to low confidence of both local and foreign investors.

    He said that investors were still weary of market outlook due to macro economic development.

    Wusu attributed foreign investors’ lack of confidence in the market to foreign exchange issues, noting that they were yet to be convinced of the Forex supply side in spite of the apex bank’s regular intervention.

    He said that investment in the market, with the turn of events, was for investors with high risk appetite.

    A Professor of Economics, Sheriffadeen Tella of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, said that budget approval delay would affect the multiplier effects on sectoral expansion and employment generation.

    Tella said the stock market had failed to respond to some impressive results declared so far.

    According to him, this is because people have low income which is largely devoted to meeting basic needs than investment in the face of rising prices.

    He added that Nigerians were generally risk averse and were yet to overcome the negative effects of loss of fund in the protracted economic crisis of the recent past.

    NAN reports that a turnover of 1.31 billion shares worth N10.32 billion were exchanged by investors in 13,042 deals last week against 1.03 billion shares valued at N7.98 billion exchanged hands in 13,441 deals in the preceding week.

    The  Financial  Services  industry, when measured  in volume terms,  led  the  activity  chart  with  1.14  billion  shares worth N6.03 billion traded in 7,518 deals.

    It contributed 87.01 per cent and 58.39 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value.

    The  Consumer  Goods  sector followed  with  71.21  million shares,  valued at  N2.31 billion transacted in  2,261 deals.

    The third place was occupied by Services Industry, with a turnover of 29.39 million shares worth N24.59 million in 258 deals.

    The NSE All-Share Index and market capitalisation depreciated by 0.77 per cent and 0.80 per cent to close the week at 25,454.93 and N8.807 trillion respectively against 25,653.16 and N8.878 trillion achieved in the previous week.

    Lafarge Africa led the gainers’ table for the week in percentage terms, improving by 13.92 per cent or N5.01 to close at N41.01 per share.

    Fidson Healthcare followed with a gain of 13.48 per cent or 12k to close at N1.01, while Livestock Feeds increased by 10.94 per cent or 7k to close at 71 per share.

    On the other hand, Guinness led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping by 9.77 per cent or N6.50 to close at N60 per share.

    Seplat trailed with a loss of 9.73 per cent or N38.72 to close at N359.28, while Diamond Bank shed 8.51 per cent or 8k to close at 86 per share.

  • Doubts over early passage of 2017 budget

    Doubts over early passage of 2017 budget

    The National Assembly may not pass the 2017 budget before the end of this month as planned, it was learnt yesterday.

    The National Assembly had originally scheduled the second week of March to pass the budget.

    It became obvious that the deadline would not be met when it was discovered that many Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) failed to honour the invitation to defend their budgets.

    Due to what was described as the recalcitrance of MDAs to defend their budget proposals, the Senate leadership re-scheduled the deadline to pass the budget to March ending.

    The lawmakers claimed that the affected MDAs were frustrating their effort to pass the budget as scheduled and warned that affected MDAs might receive zero allocation.

    On March 14, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, read out a list of 44 sub-committees which was yet to defend their 2017 budget proposal before the Appropriation Committee.

    The sub-committees were said to have been hindered from defending their budget before the Appropriation Committee because MDAs under them failed to defend their budgets.

    The listed sub-committees included Air Force, Army, Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Capital Market, Communications, Co-operation and Integration in Africa and NEPAD, Culture and Tourism, Defence, Downstream Petroleum sector, Ecology and Climate Change, Environment, Federal Capital Territory, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, and Finance.

    Others included Foreign Affairs, Gas, Health, Housing, ICT& Cyber Crimes, Independent National Electoral Commission, Information and National Orientation, Industry, Land Transport, National Identity and National Population, National Planning, National Security and Intelligence, Navy, Niger Delta, Police Affairs, Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, Poverty Alleviation and Social Welfare, Public Accounts, Primary Health Care and Communicable Diseases, Science and Technology, Sustainable Development Goals, Solid Minerals, Special Duties, Sports and Youth Development, State and Local Governments, Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Water Resources, Women Affairs and Works.

    The sub-committees listed are contained in the Senate Votes and Proceedings of this month.

    The sub- committees were given March 15 deadline to submit their 2017 appropriation report to the Senate Appropriation committee for collation and necessary harmonisation.

    Finding yesterday showed that although some of the sub-committees had defended their budgets last “many are still outstanding because MDAs under have not turned up to defend their budgets.”

    A source said in line with what Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki said, the National Assembly may be forced to give zero allocation to MDAs that failed to defend their budget proposals.

  • FG’s five economic recovery plans

    FG’s five economic recovery plans

    The ‎Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, on Wednesday, said that the current recession in the country will end before this year runs out.

    According to him, the yet to be passed 2017 Budget has been structured to achieve the goal.

    “The five priorities areas that we have are:[quote font_size=”20″ color=”#000000″ bgcolor=”#c2d631″ bcolor=”#dd3333″ arrow=”yes”]

    • Stabilising the microeconomic environment.
    • Achieving agriculture and food security.
    • Ensuring energy sufficiency – power as well as petroleum products.
    • Improving transportation infrastructure and,
    • Driving industrialisation focusing on small and medium scale enterprises.”

    [/quote]

    [news_box style=”2″ display=”tag” tag=”Recession” count=”6″ show_more=”on”]

  • Jigawa Assembly passes 2017 budget

    Jigawa Assembly passes 2017 budget

    THE Jigawa State House of Assembly has passed the 2017 budget, with an increase of over N2.6 billion.
    Chairman House Committee on Appropriation Sule Musa said (Dutse Constituency) said the N2.6 billion increase was allowed on the initial N127.8 billion for the state and N49.6 billion for the councils after a consideration of the economic variables, ranging from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and statutory federal allocation due to the improvement in the oil sector and agricultural development.
    He maintained the state has diversified its source of IGR and the huge investments made in agriculture are expected to start yielding results this year.
    Musa added: “When the budget was presented, the benchmark of crude oil stood at $45.2 per barrel, now with an increase in the price and in the daily production of crude oil, there is much expectation of increase in the statutory monthly federal allocation.
    “It is based on this that the committee increased the budget, which aims at providing adequate funds to execute projects and programs that would improve the social and economic life of the people.

  • 2017 budget not padded – Akabueze

    The Federal Government on Thursday described as untrue claims that the 2017 budget was padded and filled with frivolous and unclear expenditures.

    The Director-General, Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, made the clarification while addressing journalists and members of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on the 2017 budget in Abuja.

    Speaking on the N2 billion housing project that whipped up the padding controversy, Akabueze said the money has been traced to the federal ministry of housing and not the federal ministry of finance.

    He said, “When they asked the minister of works about the N2 billion provision for regional housing scheme, he answered that it was related to the ministry of finance which is inaccurate.”

    “Some have alleged that padding is back in the 2017 budget. I can say without equivocation that there is no padding in the 2017 budget proposal. The process of preparing the budget required Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to upload their budgets online through their accredited officers, who were issued access codes to ensure audit trail of all entries.”

    “In preparing the budget, the Chief Executive or Chief Accounting Officers of all MDAs were required to certify their final budgets. The budget presented to the National Assembly by Mr. President was exactly what the MDAs certified.”

  • 2017 budget: Senate gives ministers, others two day ultimatum

    2017 budget: Senate gives ministers, others two day ultimatum

    …Defaulting MDAs to receive zero capital allocations

     

    The Senate Wednesday gave ministers and heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) a two day ultimatum to appear before its relevant committees to defend their agencies’ 2017 budgets.

    The upper chamber warned that recalcitrant ministers and heads of MDAs who failed to appear within Thursday and Friday would have themselves to blame as their agencies would receive zero capital allocations.

    The ultimatum is coming even as the Senate suspended plenary till Tuesday to allow affected MDAs to appear before its committees.

    Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who moved the motion to suspend plenary noted that the leadership of the Senate had been informed that some heads of MDAs failed to appear to defend their agencies’ budgets.

    Lawn said that the Senate would have no other option than to pass the budget without considering the budget of any MDA that failed to defend its budget.

    The Senate Leader noted that it was discovered that there were issues pending to be resolved with some MDAs.

    Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, who underscored the implications of what Lawan said insisted that heads of MDAs must defend their budget on or before Friday.

    Saraki noted that the Senate would not allow few individuals to hold the country to ransom by flagrantly failing to honour invitations from committees.

    He said that the extension of the budget defence session would affect the earlier date scheduled by the National Assembly to pass the 2017 budget.

    The Senate President said that the National Assembly has set the second week of March as the new target to pass the budget.

    Saraki said: “The plenary has been suspended till next week to allow the committees to complete the budget defence. From the meeting we had on Tuesday, it shows that a number of ministers and chief executives of MDAs have not come to make their budget defence and we are going to give them today and tomorrow to do that.

    “Any minister or head of agency that does not do that by Friday, we are not going to keep this open and hold the country to ransom because of a few people. We have already lost a week because we should have finished this by end of last week and start receiving reports.

    “This is a final warning to all those required to ensure that unfailingly by today or tomorrow, they should appear before the committees. After that, the committees are allowed to do as they wish on their budgets.”

    Saraki also said that the leadership of the Senate would meet with the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo yesterday to resolve grey areas in the budget.

    He said, “Those who are meant to re-submit certain corrections should do that by the end of Friday. It is our hope that by next week, all reports should have been submitted to the Appropriation Committee and for them to start receiving the reports for those that have completed their work. It is very important that this is done.

    “The leadership will also be meeting with the Acting President this evening (yesterday) to try and iron out these issues. This is because we are determined that we must pass this budget within the second week of March. That is our target. So, we hope that this meeting will also help to speed up some of these discrepancies and clear them.”

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Abdullahi Sabi, warned that heads of MDAs who failed to appear before the committees will have zero capital budget allocations.

    On Tuesday, standing committee chairmen were in a closed session with the leadership of the Senate to brief on the budget defence.

    It was learnt that the committee chairmen complained bitterly about the uncooperative attitude of some ministers and heads of agencies.

    The chairmen were also said to have pointed out inconsistencies in the 2017 budget document.

    It was learnt that the lawmakers demanded breakdown of the N500 billion voted as intervention funds.

    The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, was named as one of those who failed to appear before the committee to defend the budgets of his ministry.

    The Director General of Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) was also said to have failed to appear to defend the budget of the corporation.

    Other issues raised were alleged ‘phoney’ proposals including fake budgets for items such as computers, funds for maintenance of generators and other proposals and items said to have been duplicated.

  • 2017 Budget : Taking the process a notch higher

    2017 Budget : Taking the process a notch higher

    Since President Muham-madu Buhari submitted the 2017 Appropriations proposal to the joint sitting of the two branches of the National Assembly last December, many Nigerians have been on the watch to know what difference will attend the process of passing it compared to that of last year.

    The 2016 process was bedevilled with so many problems. First, while members of the National Assembly proceeded on End of year recess after receiving the document so late from the President, during the holiday, there were speculations that the document submitted in the full glare of the public had developed wings. Though the National Assembly insisted the information was untrue, later facts revealed that what happened was an attempt by some officials from the executive arm to replace what the President submitted with a new document.

    President Buhari eventually wrote the federal legislature formally replacing the budget proposal. This was followed by series of denials of the proposed estimates contained in the budget by some Ministries, Departments and Agencies. These rebuttals and rejection of the proposed estimates by MDAs became what is now famously referred to as ‘Budget Padding’. This is because it is believed that some bureaucrats in the Budget Office inflated and imported strange figures into the Appropriation Bill without the knowledge of the heads of MDAs to which they are attributed.

    The budget padding syndrome led to the sanctioning of some officials in the Budget Office. To strengthen the operation of the office, a new head, Dr. Ben Akabueze was appointed. Remember the 2016 budget was the first full budget to be prepared and implemented by the Buhari administration. Thus, apart from the shake-up in the Budget Office, it is obvious that both the executive and the legislature needed to buckle up to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment that attended the last year’s budget.

    In preparation for this year’s budget, the Senate set up a committee comprising Senators and members from the Ministry of Budget and the National Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS) to review the process and make recommendations for improvements. The committee headed by then majority leader, Sen. Ali Ndume suggested several methods and measures which if eventually adopted will ease the process, make it more thorough and transparent.

    One of the recommendations is a time table which will see the President submitting the budget well on time while the passage and assent to the Appropriation bill will take place before the end of the year.

    More importantly, the National Assembly under its Chairman and Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki canvassed and emphasised improved consultations between the Presidency and the legislature so that majority of the grey and dark areas of the budget would have been cleared between both sides before the process commences.

    From the legislative point, the lawmakers on their own had several in-house discussions where all members were made to understand what to do and have their time-line on the process of passage of the budget. The Senate and House of Representatives officially commenced the process on January 24 with a three-day plenary debate of the general principles of the 2017 budget. On  January 26, Saraki held a meeting with Committee chairmen to brief them on the need to be diligent, transparent and be fast about the budget. During the briefing, Saraki distributed a document prepared by a Civil Society Organisation, BudgIt, which already identified 601 areas of the budget proposal which it termed “Frivolous and Suspicious Items”. The BudgIt document is expected to serve as a guide for the legislators.

    Last Monday, the National Assembly unfolded another innovation into the budget process with the commencement of a three-day unprecedented public hearing. This enables members of the public, Civil society groups, socio-cultural groups and others to have a say in what the budget will eventually look like. Through the public hearing, the National Assembly is broadening and democratising participation in the budget process.

    The defence before the legislative committees by MDAs which was concluded last Friday has been devoid of any allegation or scandal. The committees are keeping to the time table agreed with their leadership. It is also expected that harmonisation at committee level has been concluded. By tomorrow, submission of committee reports to the Appropriation Committee based on an earlier announced schedule will begin and end on Friday, February 24.

    On Tuesday February 21, plenary will resume. All that will now be left will be compilation of committee reports, engagement of the leadership by the appropriation committee as well as interface with some committees, laying reports at plenary and consideration/passage of the budget.

    It is expected that before the end of March, the budget should be ready for assent by President Buhari. This will be clear ten weeks gained considering that the 2016 budget in operation was passed in May. The early passage of the budget will give ample time for the National Assembly to roll out the plan contained in the reports of the Committee on Budget reform to create a system-driven, process-oriented auto-Pilot budget process before the next exercise.

    The success of the budget process as planned by the National Assembly will affect its implementation and relevance in uplifting the standard of living of the people. That is the objective of the first ever public hearing on the passage of the Appropriation Act introduced by National Assembly.

     

    • Olaniyonu is Special Adviser to Senate President on Media and Publicity.