Amid concerns over the delay in the submission of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), the templates for the 2025 Budget, the Senate has stated that the expeditious passage lies with the diligence, or otherwise, of the Executive arm of government.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sani Musa, made the clarification on Friday night while speaking with newsmen shortly after his committee’s closed-door meeting with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari; and the representative of the Central Bank Governor, Yemi Cardoso.
Checks revealed that before the presentation of the annual budget by the President before the joint sitting of both Chambers of the National Assembly, the MTEF/FSP, which contains the oil price benchmark, projected oil production per day, exchange rate of the Naira to the US dollar, inflation rate, among other fiscal templates, must have been submitted to both Chambers of the National Assembly for the lawmakers’ dissection.
Further checks revealed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented the 2024 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, almost threatening the January-December budget cycle. The 2024 Budget was passed by the National Assembly on Saturday, December 30, 2023, and signed into law on January 1, 2024, by President Tinubu.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee maintained that the success of the January-December cycle, which was the practice for eight years under President Muhammadu Buhari in the 8th and 9th National Assembly, depends on the economic team of the Tinubu administration.
He said, “The executive should be able to answer that question because I know they are doing their work; they are working.
“As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, along with members of the committee, we have just interacted with the Minister of Finance, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL), and other top managers of the nation’s economy on the performance of the 2024 budget.
“They are definitely working on the 2025 budget and will forward it to us when work on it has been completed. The decision on that lies with the executive and not us at the National Assembly.”
Senator Musa, however, told journalists that his team had a frank discussion with Honourable Wale Edun and his colleagues, expressing hope in the government’s economic reforms.
“I believe in the assurance given by the Finance Minister that our economy is taking good shape through results from the reforms.
“For example, our debt-to-GDP ratio is decreasing and not increasing. The positive indices are already showing, and within the next 16 to 18 months, Nigerians themselves will see the gains in practical terms.”
