After about six months of waiting, Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, Monday, finally signed the Appropriation Bill into law at exactly 4.41pm surrounded by principal officers from the National Assembly, including the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, and Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari.
Both Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, and his counterpart in charge of the House of Representatives, Usumiala Kao, presented the Appropriation Bill before the Acting President at exactly 4:41pm.
Osinbajo signed the N7.441 trillion 2017 budget christened Budget of Growth and Recovery, which was approved by the National Assembly on May 11 after raising it from N7.298 trillion to N7.441 trillion, before being submitted to the Presidency on May 19.
With the signing of the 2017 budget into law, the Federal Government will now authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation of the total sum of N7.441,175,486,758.
Of that amount, N438,412,952,249 will be for statutory transfers; N1.841,345,727,206 will be for debt service, while N177,416,296,707 will be for a sinking fund for maturing bonds. N2.987,550,3436 will be for recurrent non-debt expenditure while the sum of N2.177,866,775,867 will be for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure exclusive of capital expenditure in statutory transfers for the year ending December 31, 2017.
In his remarks shortly after signing the document, Osinbajo said the executive will be returning to the legislature for an upward review of the budget by way of virement.
Meanwhile, Nigerians yesterday spoke on their expectations of the 2017 budget.
Finance experts described yesterday’s signing of the 2017 Appropriation Bill into law by Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, as one step that has averted a major constitutional crisis that would have sprang up from the delay in signing the document due to President Muhammadu Buhari’s absence.
They have therefore urged the Federal Government to target a 100 per cent implementation of the budget by swiftly releasing funds to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to embark on various capital projects in the urgent task of revamping the nation’s ailing economy.
Reacting to the Acting President’s assent to the budget, the founder of Centre for Values and Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi, said those charged with the responsibility of implementing the budget should be more diligent and alive to their responsibilities, considering lost grounds.
He said the country should endeavour to push for a robust growth with spending and reduce all forms of wastage in a bid to reduce the unemployment gap, especially among youths in the country.
‘‘We need to recognise that this is the time for commitment on the part of patriots to deliver the dividends of democracy. We can no longer afford the luxury of the business-as-usual approach, hence the success of the budget in terms of performance may be in jeopardy,’’ he said.
Also commenting on the budget, the former Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc, Mr. Rislanudeen Muhammad, said the Federal Government should speed up all programmes and projects with the signing of the budget.
“So, one of the ways the government can make things happen is to focus on capital projects. Budget releases to MDAs should be sped up. It will help get us out of recession,” he said.
Muhammad advised the government to ensure the budget is prepared ahead of time and passed by January of every year.
According to Mr. Sewa Wusu, Head, Research & Investment Advisory, SCM Capital Limited, the expectation of the people as regards the budget implementation has been very high.
“Although it is coming a bit behind schedule, don’t forget that the former budget was running till the end of May. Now that the budget has been signed, I think the onus lies with the government to implement it fully. And if you look at past budget performance in the last administration, what was achieved was about 40 per cent implementation. And I think this time around, the Federal Government should be determined. It should have strong economic and political will to ensure that it implements the budget. “Implementation is very key. Now that they are saying that the foreign exchange volatility has reduced, the climate is favourable in terms of investors coming back to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the economy seems to have gained momentum.
For his part, a Senior Lecturer in Nasarawa State University, Dr. Uche Uwaleke, said the fundamental thing the assent on the Appropriation Bill achieved was averting a constitutional crisis.
“Section 59 of the 1999 Constitution says if Appropriation Bill is sent to President from the National Assembly for assent, it should do so within 30 days. Because after 30 days without signing it, it’ll revert to the National Assembly which will then use two thirds majority arrangement to pass it, boycotting the executive. That would certainly cause some crisis.
“That said, the budget is now law. It will remove uncertainties in the economy and restore business confidence. Stocks are rebounding already and recession is loosening its grip. Headline inflation is on downward trend.”
Still on implementing the budget, Prof. David Iornem of the Institute of Management Consultants told Daily Sun that the government should move swiftly to commence the execution or implementation of the capital projects in the budget. He, however, cautioned that given the ongoing recession in the country, great care must be taken not to pump in so much funds into the economy in a manner that can create an inflation.
“We are already in June and the budget being passed into law at this time means that the government must commence action immediately in its implementation, especially on key infrastructure like roads, rail transport and electricity,” said Iornem.
As for Prof. Chris Onalo of the Institute of Credit Administration, the budget implementation is a bulk work. He said, “the budget is good. The implementation is a bulk work and specifically we expect that road construction and power generation should receive a major attention.
These are the key things and, of course, the government should be committed to deploying more resources to resolving conflicts in the volatile areas of the country and then leave Nigerians to drive the entrepreneurship and industrialisation programme of the country.
As important as road construction is, government should also target supply of electricity and agriculture. The pathway to a robust agricultural economy should be well-funded and policies properly articulated.
“The budget is the process that lubricates the economy. The government should therefore ensure that corruption is brought to a standstill – referring to the new phase of corruption. Let it be that the old corruption is being fought to a standstill and never to see it coming up again. By that I am inferring that resources should be totally committed for the purpose they are approved. People should not be saying one thing with one hand and using the other hand to pull it back. The budget should be implemented with all transparency, commitment and patriotism because Nigerians have waited for too long and I think the budget represents the strength of Nigeria. We need to see that the budget is transparent in its entire process.”
SOURCE: The Sun
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