Nigeria: Buhari requests 2016 budget to make changes

President Muhammadu Buhari has requested for the 2016 budget from parliament to make changes in it. Sources at the presidency and senate indicate that the president made the request through a written note to parliament.

“Mr president has written to the Senate and the House of Representatives to withdraw the 2016 budget to enable him to affect some amendments following the further dwindling price of oil among other areas,”
a source at the presidency told Reuters.

Other sources speaking to the news agency said the area which required amendments were not outlined in the president’s letter. The president’s spokesperson could not be readily reached for comments.

President Buhari unveiled the budget for Africa’s biggest economy in December, which included a tripling of capital expenditure, as the continent’s top oil exporter tries to overcome its worst economic crisis in years caused by the fall in crude prices.

The Buhari government plans to increase spending to 6.08 trillion Naira.

For the first time in 12 years, Brent crude which gives Nigeria about 95 percent of its foreign earnings has fallen to about $30 a barrel while the Naira has dropped against the dollar.

Despite the difficulties, President Buhari sounded optimistic during his 2016 budget address, “ in the medium to longer term, we remain committed to economic diversification through import substitution and export promotion. This will build resilience in our economy. It will guarantee that the problems we have today, will not confront our children and their children. This shall be our legacy for generations to come,” said Buhari .

The President had also announced his desire to ensure macroeconomic stability by achieving a real GDP growth rate of 4.37 per cent and curbing inflation.

It should be recalled that the hard and soft copies of Nigeria’s budget had been declared missing at the National Assembly, sometime last week.