2016 budget to be passed by February 26

There are expectations that the National Assembly will pass the 2016 budget by February 26.

The Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said in Abuja that the standing committees of the House working on the details of the budget had been instructed to stick to the budget size.

“The budget size will be retained. We have advised the committees to stick to the envelopes of the MDAs. The committees can move the money across the details of the budget to reflect areas of need,” Jibrin said.

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He mentioned that the “copy and paste” approach to budgeting in which all the MDAs produced a uniform template would end this year by allocating funds to where it is most needed.

According to him, no organ of government, including the Presidency, would be exempted from the alterations of the budget details.

He mentioned that the $38 per barrel crude oil benchmark proposed by the President for the budget was no longer realistic.

“It is our thinking that the benchmark will be adjusted to reflect the pricing realities of the moment. We will peg it at a very safe figure that will be more realistic,” Jibrin stated.

Many Nigerians are quite resentful of the fact that the budget proposal took too long to be negotiated.