What we know about Nigeria’s 2018 budget after President Buhari signed it

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2018 Appropriation Bill (budget) into law few minutes past noon on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.

Here’s what we know

The National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion

The 8th National Assembly, NASS, have made some cuts in the Appropriation Bill submitted by President Buhari to the tune of N347 billion.

President Buhari revealed that legislative arm of the government made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

The 2018 approved Budget

Budget size: N9.12 Trillion

Deficit: N1.95 Trillion:

Recurrent Non Debt: N3.51 Trillion

Capital Expenditure: N2.87 Trillion

Debt Servicing: N2.2 Trillion

Statutory Allocation: N530 Billion

Revenue: N7.1 Trillion

2018 budget is the longest to be passed into law

ALSO READ: Here's what recently passed appropriation bill means for Nigerians

The 2018 budget has been judged as the longest budget in the history of Nigeria to be passed by legislative. The passing of the budget is responsible for the execution of various Federal projects. During ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, the budget was delayed till February. For late former President Umaru Yar’Adua, the Appropriation Bill was passed on April 22 while ex-President Goodluck Jonathan signed the country’s budget into law on May 24, 2018. The longest budget so far to be passed into law is the 2018 budget which was signed into law on June 20, 2018, by President Muhammadu Buhari.

While signing the budget into law, President Buhari noted that the budget was passed by the National Assembly seven months after he had submitted the proposals.

While the Federal Government’s budget represents less than 10% of aggregate yearly expenditures in the economy, it has a very significant accelerator effect on the financial plans of other tiers of government, and even more importantly, the private sector, which mostly operates on a January-December financial year.

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President Buhari is unhappy and worried

President Buhari has expressed worries over the substantial cut of N347 billion for 4,700 projects by the National Assembly and replaced with N578 billion for 6,403 projects.

Buhari said: “I am however concerned about some of the changes @nassnigeria has made to the budget proposals I presented. The logic behind the Constitutional direction that budgets should be proposed by the Executive is that it is the Executive that knows & defines its policies & projects.

“Unfortunately, that has not been given much regard in what has been sent to me. Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new projects inserted by National Assembly have not been properly conceptualized, designed and cost and will, therefore, be difficult to execute.”

ALSO READ: Nigeria’s parliament passed a record 9.12 trillion Naira

Project affected by the cuts on 2018 Budget

President Buhari has reiterated that the cut in the 2018 budget will affect several projects. According to the Presidency, here is a list of the projects that will be affected as a result of the cut.

A total of N5 billion was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment.

The provision for Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from N2 billion to N500 million, which will further delay the completion of this critical project.

The Take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State, a key strategic initiative of the Federal Government, was cut from N5 billion to N3.4 billion.

About 70 new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works, and Housing. In doing so, the legislative arm applied some of the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark to the Ministry’s vote.

The NASS increased the provisions for Statutory Transfers by an aggregate of N73.96 billion.

The NASS increased the budget of the legislative arm by N14.5 billion. The NASS budget increased from N125 billion to N139.5 billion.

What we know about Nigeria’s 2018 budget after President Buhari signed it

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