All is now set for the presentation of the 2020 budget to the National Assembly as the Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Monday, approved the budgetary proposal of N10.72T for presentation to the National Assembly
The approval, BusinessDay gathered, was given at the Extra-Ordinary meeting of the Council on Monday, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari
Although there was no briefing at the end of the meeting, BusinessDay gathered that the meeting was called solely to “ put finishing touches to the 2020 budget, to be presented to the National Assembly by 2pm, on Tuesday.
A source closed to the meeting had informed BusinessDay that “ FEC is in agreement with the position of the National Assembly on the benchmarks as contained in the MTEF, approved by the legislature recently”
The Senate had approved all the 16 recommendations contained in the report of the National Assembly joint Committee on Finance and National Planning, on the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
Senate increased the proposed 2020 budget from N10.002T to N10.729T, an increase of over N700b , as contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), paving the way for President Buhari to submit the fiscal document, on Tuesday.
The National Assembly had insisted on early submission of the 2020 budget proposals to ease early passage and enable the country return to the January to December budget cycle as against the current May-June budget cycle.
The new move is expected to also help the oil rich West African nation, overcome distortions in economic planing, poor budget implementation as well as oversight responsibilities of the National Assembly in budget implementation.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
