Nigeria: Parliament refuses to pass 2016 budget

Nigeria’s National Assembly will not pass the 2016 budget proposal on February 25 as earlier scheduled and could not also guarantee any future date for the passage of the budget.

The parliament on Tuesday said the budget would not be passed on the earlier proposed date because of “discrepancies, errors and ambiguities” inherent in the budget proposal.

The lawmakers said they needed to do a “proper clean up” of the budget.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented a $30 billion budget in December last year but requested for it to be withdrawn in January to make changes due to further fall in oil prices.

The fall forced the deficit up to 3 trillion naira ($15 billion) from 2.2 trillion.

Chairman of the Budget Committee in the Lower House, Abdulmumin Jibrin said the house is yet to agree on how much ministries would be allocated.

“The National Assembly sessions have witnessed disagreements between various ministers and top civil servants,” Jibrin said.

Chairman of the Budget Committee in the Upper House,Danjuma Goje said the house wanted more time to do a thorough job.

“We don’t want to pass a budget that will be returned to us. We need to remove all ambiguities and paddings,” Goje added

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and oil producer has held talks with the World Bank and is considering borrowing from the African Development Bank and China Exim Bank.