President
Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday presented an appropriation bill of N8.612 trillion
for 2018.
The
President, while presenting the document before the joint session of the
National Assembly in Abuja, said the budget was meant to consolidate the
achievements of previous budgets.
He
said the 2018 budget was also to deliver on Nigeria’s economic recovery growth.
The
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the
proposed budget had a 16 per cent increase compared to the 2017 appropriation
of N7.298 trillion.
Buhari
said that 30.8per cent of the budget proposal had been dedicated to capital
expenditure, while N3.494 trillion of the proposal had been set aside for
recurrent expenditure.
According
to him, N2.014trillion of the budget has been set aside for debt servicing.
He
further stated that the 2018 appropriation was under pin by an oil bench mark
of 45 dollars per barrel, oil production level of 2.3 million barrel per day
and exchange rate of N305 to the dollar.
The
President said the size of the 2018 budget was a reflection of his
administration’s determination to consolidate and sustain the nation’s economic
growth.
While
reviewing the performance of his administration, Buhari noted that N1.2
trillion had so far been expended on execution of capital projects through 2016
budget.
He
said the Federal Government had also invested 500 million dollars in the
nation’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) as part of deliberate measures to support
government’s diversification drives.
The
President announced that the nation’s external reserve presently stood at 34
billion dollars as of Sept. 2017, while the country recorded trade surplus of
N56.5 billion as of second quarter of 2017.
On
food security, the President said that a committee headed by Vice-President
Yemi Osinbajo had been inaugurated to check smuggling of food items across the
country’s border towns.
He
warned that food smugglers would be dealt with accordingly by the government.
Source: The Nation
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