Recovered stolen money to partly finance Nigeria's $23b budget - official

A Nigerian official has disclosed that about 20 per cent of the recently signed $23 billion budget will be financed by the recovered state money from corrupt officials.

Okoi Obono-Obla, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecutions told the media on Tuesday that the recovered looted funds will be used after approval by the National Assembly.

“About 20 per cent of this year’s budget will be financed from our recovery effort,” he was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Nigeria’s Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo signed the record 7.44 trillion naira ($23 billion) budget on Monday after months of delay due to recession.

Last year’s budget which was passed in May 2016, was delayed for months due to disagreements between lawmakers and the presidency.

This further deepened the country’s recession now in its second year, brought on by low oil prices which have slashed government revenues, weakened the naira and caused chronic dollar shortages.

President Muhammadu Buhari launched the National Economic Recovery Plan (NERP) in April to help Nigeria come out of recession. He also launched the Whistleblower Policy in December 2016 to help recover looted state funds.

So far, the anti-corruption policy has led to the provision of 337 tips from over 2,000 people at the dedicated Whistleblower Unit which cuts across all security agencies, officials disclosed.

However, the amount of money and assets recovered have not been made public.