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President Muhammadu Buhari has presented a
N7.298 trillion 2017 budget before the joint session
of the National Assembly.
The presentation was made on Wednesday in Abuja
with members of the senate and House of
Representatives in joint session.
President Buhari said at the ceremony that
government benchmarked the 2017 budget at N305
naira against one US dollar ($1) .
He said the budget is also predicated on daily crude
oil production of at 2.2 million barrels and at $42 per
barrel.

Buhari said that 2017 budget proposal is 20.4 per
cent higher than that of the 2016 estimate.
He explained that for the country to effectively
diversify from oil, it would need oil money for the
movement.
Tagged budget of economic recovery and growth, he
said, it was centered on agriculture and
manufacturing.
He said that the budget would bring the nation out of
recession.

The President said that government would continue
to fortify “our defence’’ and spend on it till “all our
enemies within and without are subdued.”
He said that government would retain N500 billion
social intervention fund in the 2017 budget.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the House
Speaker, Dogara received President Buhari.
The President appealed to governors to make land
easily accessible to farmers to boost food
production.
Early in he morning, protesting Super Falcons were at
National Assembly gate to draw draw attention of
Buhari who was going to present 2017 Budget.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday adopted
the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure
Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) as
President Muhammadu Buhari presents the 2017
budget estimates to a joint session of National
Assembly.


The House fixed the exchange rate of Naira to a
dollar at N350 as against the N290 recommended by
the executive.
The House also concurred on the oil benchmark of
42.50 dollar per barrel with a proposed daily
production of 2.2 million barrels per day.
Consequently, the House had mandated its joint
committees on Finance, Appropriation, National
Planning and Economic Development, Legislative
Budget and Research and Aids, Loans and Debt
Management to further scrutinise the document.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that
Buhari had on Oct. 4, forwarded a request to the
National Assembly seeking for approval of the 2017
to 2019 MTEF and FSP.

Moving the motion for the adoption of the MTEF/FSP,
House Leader, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, said Section
11(2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, provides
that “the MTEF shall be considered for approval with
such modifications if any, as the National Assembly
finds appropriate by a resolution of each House of
the National Assembly”.
He further noted that Section 11 (3) of the FRA, 2007,
states that “the MTEF shall contain, among other
things, a macro-economic framework setting out the
macro-economic projections for the next three
financial years.
“The underlying assumptions for those projections
and an evaluation and analysis of the macro-
economic projections for the preceding three
financial years”.
He said that some analysts forecasts that the
shortage of forex supply may push exchange rate to
as high as N350 to the dollar in the official and N500
in the parallel markets.
He recommended that “the budgeted exchange rate
of N290 per dollar is unrealistic and should be
moved to at N350 to encourage foreign capital
inflows”.


On crude oil, he said that “the proposed oil
benchmark is 42.50 dollars per barrel with a daily
production of 2.2million barrels per day.
“Both seems to be realistic as oil is currently trading
at about 50 dollar per barrel”.
According to him, though there is a steady
improvement in oil prices, the government has
chosen to play safe and benchmark oil price at 42.50
dollars, 45 dollars and 50 dollars for 2017, 2018 and
2019.
He explained that “with current price level of over 50
dollars per barrel and Nigeria’s current output at 1.9
million barrels per day, the estimates are
conservative enough especially with OPEC output
freeze last week”.

He maintained that the revenue target of N4.169
trillion and total expenditure of N6.687 trillion were
audacious to move the country out of recession.
He said: “These are achievable only on effective
combination of strong fiscal and monetary tools by
government, increasing the tax base in the country.
“Curtailing militancy in the Niger Delta and injecting
back looted funds, diversification of the country’s
revenue sources, controlled government spending
and strong anti-leakage and
anti-corruption drives.”

He stated that GDP was projected to grow at 3.02 per
cent in 2017, while inflation was expected to
moderate to 12.92 per cent.
Also consumption was projected to increase to N80.5
trillion.
“However, GDP growth at end of third quarter, 2016
slowed to 2.24 per cent, while inflation rose to an all-
time high of 18.3 per cent.
“These budget growth levels in GDP and inflation are
not achievable in 2017.”

NAN also reports that President Buhari is expected
to present a proposed budget of N7.28 trillion for the
year 2017 at a joint session of both chambers of
National Assembly on Wednesday.
The proposed budget represents an increase
of about 19.95 per cent over the 2016 Appropriation
of N6.07 trillion.
NAN