Senate begins work on 2018 budget Wednesday

The Senate has concluded plans to begin work on the 2018
Appropriation Bill on Wednesday.

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who made the
announcement at the plenary session on Thursday, urged legislators
interested in participating in the debates scheduled to hold on the
Wednesday and Thursday to begin their registration on Monday.

Saraki also said copies of the bill would be made available to
senators by Monday.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs,
Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, while briefing journalists, said the bill was
a voluminous document, the reason why distribution of copies to the
lawmakers had been delayed.

When reminded that the 2018-2020 medium term expenditure
framework and fiscal strategy paper was still pending in the
National Assembly, Sabi-Abdullahi said the budget and the MTEF
would be processed simultaneously.

“It is all intertwined. We are bringing all of them together
that same week (next week). Already, we’ve already had a meeting on
the MTEF and we are working on it,” he said.

When asked if the MTEF would be passed before the budget as
expected, the Senate’s spokesman said, “Of course, but this one
(debate on budget) is just for us to commit it to the committees.
The debate is for the second reading. That does not stop anything.
By the time we will be finishing (with budget defence sessions),
MTEF report would have been laid and everything would have been
cleared. This is our innovation.”

President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2018 Appropriation Bill
to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives
in Abuja on November 7.

The President laid a budget size of N8.612tn before the
legislature for 2018, an increase of N1.7tn from the N7.44tn
appropriated in 2017.

From the proposed N8.612tn for 2018, the President said
recurrent costs would be N3.494tn, while N2.652tn was earmarked for
capital expenditure.

He added that debt servicing would cost N2.014tn; and statutory
transfers, N456bn.

The amount earmarked as Sinking Fund “to retire maturing bond to
local contractors” was N220bn.

Other key assumptions of the budget are a crude oil benchmark of
US$45 per barrel ($44 in 2017); and oil production estimate of 2.3
million barrels per day, including condensates (2.2mbpd in
2017).

The exchange rate of N305/US$ was planned for 2018, the same
rate for 2017 budget.

The Senate has concluded plans to begin work on the 2018
Appropriation Bill on Wednesday.

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who made the
announcement at the plenary session on Thursday, urged legislators
interested in participating in the debates scheduled to hold on the
Wednesday and Thursday to begin their registration on Monday.

Saraki also said copies of the bill would be made available to
senators by Monday.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs,
Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, while briefing journalists, said the bill was
a voluminous document, the reason why distribution of copies to the
lawmakers had been delayed.

When reminded that the 2018-2020 medium term expenditure
framework and fiscal strategy paper was still pending in the
National Assembly, Sabi-Abdullahi said the budget and the MTEF
would be processed simultaneously.

“It is all intertwined. We are bringing all of them together
that same week (next week). Already, we’ve already had a meeting on
the MTEF and we are working on it,” he said.

When asked if the MTEF would be passed before the budget as
expected, the Senate’s spokesman said, “Of course, but this one
(debate on budget) is just for us to commit it to the committees.
The debate is for the second reading. That does not stop anything.
By the time we will be finishing (with budget defence sessions),
MTEF report would have been laid and everything would have been
cleared. This is our innovation.”

President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2018 Appropriation Bill
to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives
in Abuja on November 7.

The President laid a budget size of N8.612tn before the
legislature for 2018, an increase of N1.7tn from the N7.44tn
appropriated in 2017.

From the proposed N8.612tn for 2018, the President said
recurrent costs would be N3.494tn, while N2.652tn was earmarked for
capital expenditure.

He added that debt servicing would cost N2.014tn; and statutory
transfers, N456bn.

The amount earmarked as Sinking Fund “to retire maturing bond to
local contractors” was N220bn.

Other key assumptions of the budget are a crude oil benchmark of
US$45 per barrel ($44 in 2017); and oil production estimate of 2.3
million barrels per day, including condensates (2.2mbpd in
2017).

The exchange rate of N305/US$ was planned for 2018, the same
rate for 2017 budget.