“2017 Budget may end Nigeria in stagnation,” Senator says

In a tweak to President Muhammadu Buhari’s “budget of recovery and growth,” Senator Godswill Apkabio has tagged the 2017 appropriation bill as the “budget of stagnation.”

Speaking at plenary on Thursday, January 26, 2017, Akpabio said a large percentage of the 2017 budget proposal as presented to the National Assembly would be used for debt servicing and cost of running government.

The Senate minority leader noted that only little was allocated to infrastructural development which drives the economy.

“The 2017 budget may end up as a budget of stagnation rather than a budget of recovery and growth,” Apkabio said.

He goes further: “A huge chunk of the 2016 budget was left for external borrowing. As we speak, I don't think we were able to bring in one dollar to assist the 2016 budget. Therefore, we had to result to external borrowing.

“This means that for us to service the 2017 budget, we have to also borrow. Domestic borrowing will only help financial institutions, not the economy.

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“Again, a large chunk of the 2017 budget proposal goes to servicing debts, payment of salaries and the cost of running governance. Capital allocation like in the last decade remains almost the same. We may not see much of infrastructural development which drives the economy.

Similarly, former Senate leader, Ali Ndume said that the 2017 budget lacks details.

Speaking at plenary on Wednesday, January 25, Ndume said further that the lack of details in budgets is responsible for the many abandoned projects in the country.