₦airaland Forum

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

baysol:
This essentric man has no choice he must leave. Yeye man, he wake up one morning conceed defeat next few days he thought he had a better dream and say it cannot hold that election is annulled. Why is Africa so gifted and never in short supply with mourons like this?

An African Union (AU) delegation is on its way to Gambia, to persuade outgoing President Yahya Jammeh to accept his loss in the country’s December’s election.

The AU “strongly rejects any attempt to circumvent or reverse the outcome of the presidential election held in the Gambia, a clear expression of the popular will and choice of the Gambian people,’’ the organisation said in a statement.

The visit comes several days after Jammeh announced his intention to challenge the election results, which declared opponent Adama Barrow the winner.

According to Amie Bojang, the spokeswoman of Gambia’s opposition coalition the delegation includes: Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who also chairs the Economic Commission of West African State (ECOWAS).

Others are; the Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma, President Alpha Conde of Guinea and the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari.

The delegation is also expected to conduct talks with the president-elect and members of the opposition coalition, which supported Barrow’s bid for the presidency.

On Monday, Gambia’s coalition of seven opposition parties demanded Jammeh to “immediately step down and hand over power’’.

Newly elected President Barrow was initially supposed to take power in January.

Jammeh, who has ruled the West African country for 22 years with an iron fist, had earlier conceded defeat to Barrow, but then deployed heavily armed military and police to the streets of the capital Banjul.

President Muhammadu Buhari, his Liberian and Ghanaian counterparts, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and John Mahama, will on Tuesday, leave for Banjul to put diplomatic pressure on President Yahya Jammeh to transfer power to President-elect Adama Barrow.

The UN Security Council made the plan known while briefing newsmen after a closed-door meeting by the 15 members on the political situation in The Gambia.

Mr Juan Manuel De Linares, Deputy Permanent Representative of Spain, said the members of the council stood by their unanimous statement on Dec. 10 that Jammeh should commence the peaceful transfer of power to Barrow without further delay.

“A delegation by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to ECOWAS (Mohammed Ibn Chambas) and other ECOWAS and AU leaders will lead high-level delegation to Banjul tomorrow.

“The delegation will include the President of Nigeria (Buhari), Liberia (Johnson-Sirleaf), Ghana (Mahama). These are respected presidents in West Africa and Africa,” Linares said.

He, however, said that the council did not discuss any measure that would be taken should Jammeh refuse the entreaties.

“Our priority is to support the high-level visit tomorrow and ensure the mission succeeds,” he said.

He urged all parties in The Gambia to reject any form of violence and ensure peaceful transition of power in the West African country.

Amb. Ismael Martins, Permanent Representative of Angola to the UN, also told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the high-level visit was an effort of the ECOWAS leaders.

“The purpose of the visit of the ECOWAS leaders is to keep everybody in agreement to arrive at transfer of power in accordance to the rules of AU and ECOWAS.

“There is a high-level delegation of Heads of State going to visit Gambia, comprising the President of Liberia as the Head of ECOWAS and other respected heads of state in the ECOWAS sub-region,” Martins said.

In a statement on Saturday, the Security Council “strongly condemned the outgoing Gambian president’s rejection of the official election results proclaimed by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission”.

The council asked Jammeh “to respect the choice of the sovereign people of Gambia, as he did on Dec. 2, and to transfer, without condition and undue delay, power to the President-elect, Mr Adama Barrow”.

It also urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint, refrain from violence and remain calm, and requested that the security of Barrow and that of all Gambians be fully ensured.

The council also urged support by the UN Office for West Africa and international partners, especially ECOWAS, to preserve stability in The Gambia and work toward the installation of a democratically elected government in the country.

The council commended The Gambian people for the peaceful and transparent conduct of elections on Dec. 2 and expressed commitment to continue to closely follow the evolution of the situation in the country.

The council recalled the relevant provisions of Article 23 (4) of the AU Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.

NAN

RollingStones:
.
Yes he does inspire positive change unlike the foolish old idiot in Aso Rock that has brought negative change and suffering to Nigeria.

Players and officials of the victorious Super Falcons have threatened to take their protest to the doorsteps of President Muhammad Buhari if the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) continued to withhold their allowances.

The team returned from Yaoundé on Sunday morning after winning their eighth African Women Nations Cup title by beating the hosts, Lionesses of Cameroon, 1-0 on Saturday.

They left for Abuja on Sunday evening after having lunch with Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung and NFF President, Amaju Pinnick in a brief reception organized by Emzor Pharmaceuticals, one of the federation’s sponsors.

At the lunch, the players expected the minister to tell them when and how their emoluments, including camp allowances, winning bonuses and nine months salary for the coaches, would be settled.

“The minister only told us we will meet in Abuja and left with the 2.00 p.m. flight to the federal capital. We came in some hours later and since then, we have been waiting at Agura Hotel to hear from either the minister or the NFF.

“So, if by the close of work today (yesterday) nothing comes from them, we may take our action. I don’t know why this country always wants people to embarrass it before doing the needful. We may be forced to march to the Presidential Villa or the Senate to register our grievances. “Look at the way we were treated like orphans in Cameroon. None of us could buy anything for our loved ones back home just because there was no single kobo to do shopping. Is it fair?” the player asked.

NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, had told The Guardian at the Murtala Mohammed Airport shortly after the Super Falcons’ arrived on Sunday that the federation was cash strapped, adding, however, that they would do everything possible to make the players and officials smile.

“You didn’t give what you don’t have,” Pinnick answered when pressed to state exactly when the players and officials would get their emoluments.

He added, however: “We will see what we can do to put smiles on their faces because they really made the country proud.”

The lifeless body of a stowaway was on Wednesday found in the main wheel well of one of Arik Air’s A330-200 aircraft at the Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg.

A statement by its Communications Manager, Mr. Ola Adebanji, said that the aircraft operated the scheduled Lagos-Johannesburg flight that departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at 3:55pm on Tuesday and arrived in Johannesburg shortly before 11pm.

It said engineers of South African Airways Technical facility at the Oliver Tambo International Airport, where the aircraft was scheduled for a routine maintenance check, discovered the body of the stowaway during the inspection phase.

The airline said investigations were ongoing to determine how the stowaway found his way into the aircraft’s main wheel well.

(NAN)

LePrezident:
Really?

1. When in your opinion was the right window to have lowered interest rates?

2. Do you endorse the current interest rate position of the CBN?

LePrezident:
I totally agree with you. The current global economic strategy is to lower interest rate to stimulate investment and employment. African economic managers are just theoretical and highly risk averse. In my opinion, most economic managers act more like accountants than the economists they are supposed to be.

The Naira on Monday gained 50k to exchange at N305.00 to a dollar at the interbank market.

The Nigerian currency had closed at N305.50 for most part of last week at the interbank market.

However, naira remained stable at the parallel market, closing at N465 to a dollar, while Pound Sterling and Euro exchanged at N565 and N490, respectively.

Trading at the Bureau De Change window saw the naira closing at N390 to a dollar, CBN controlled rate, while Pound Sterling and Euro traded at N562 and N500 respectively.

Currency traders said that uneasy calm had prevailed at the market due to its raid by officials of the Department of State Security in some parts of the country.
In spite of the raid, the naira had remained pretty stable.

Meanwhile, stakeholders expect the Monetary Policy Committee meeting being held in Abuja to come up with policies that would lead to a greater flexibility of the exchange rate.

NAN

Genea:
I'm sorry but I can't hawk and God won't make me do so ijn

Nigeria’s economy contracted in the third quarter as businesses struggled to access foreign exchange and rebels continued to bomb oil pipelines in the restive south, official data showed Monday.

“The nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by -2.24% year-on-year,” the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said in a report.

The Nigerian economy is reeling and bruised following the crash in global oil prices from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to around half that today.

A contraction appeared inevitable when militants renewed attacks on the country’s oil infrastructure, strangling production that accounts for around 70 per cent of government revenue and the bulk of Nigeria’s export earnings.

The relentless sabotage has put the Nigerian government under pressure as economists increasingly question whether President Muhammadu Buhari can pull the country out of recession.

“During the period under review, oil production averaged at 1.63 million barrels per day (bpd),” the statistics agency said.

That is a 22-percent drop from the same period last year, when Nigeria was producing 2.17 million bpd.

Manufacturing also took a big hit, shrinking by 2.9 percent in the wake of a devalued naira and currency controls that have curbed trade.

“This is partly due to the continued fall in the exchange rate, which makes imported inputs more expensive, thereby increasing business costs,” the statistics agency said.

“This is greatly a result of the continued fall in (the) naira to dollar rate which translates to much higher cost of business operations.”

In early 2016, Buhari had vowed not to “kill the naira” by letting it fall in value, in opposition to depreciations by fellow major oil exporters Angola and Russia.

His government tried to prop up the naira for months, but that drained foreign currency reserves and it eventually abandoned the currency peg in June.

A dollar shortage persists, with black market rates hovering around 440 naira to the dollar this month compared to the official bank rate of approximately 320 naira to the dollar.

The economic troubles look to last, with peace talks between the Nigerian government and oil rebels falling apart this month — the Niger Delta Avengers claimed they bombed three pipelines last week — and foreign investors steering clear until they see a more coherent currency policy.

The International Monetary Fund has forecast the West African nation’s gross domestic product will shrink by 1.7 percent this year, the first full-year contraction in more than two decades, according to Bloomberg News.

AFP

talktimi:
what do you mean by "frivolous spending" and "spending above the stipulated limits" ? If you don't know what to say please just keep quiet before people doubt the akamu between your ears

iykedare:
People with tens of thousands of dollars are exempted?

demmahomidi:
THE REASON 20B USD IS SITTING IDLE IN ACCOUNTS IS BECAUSE CBN HAS MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO USE THEIR MONEY. CARDS DO NOT WORK, THEY CANNOT TRANSFER AND CANNOT WITHDRAW. This policy will deal the final blow to the naira. We are still waiting for policies and regulation like low interest finance and production clusters for adding value to rawmaterials and the production of intermediate goods -policies that will actually encourage diversification. Not all these noise about forex.

iykedare:
Is there any crime in saving your money in dollars? I worked for my money and so I should decide in what currency I should save it in . Why all these bad Belle sef?