The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari says the recently signed budget will trigger efforts aimed at boosting the Nigerian economy.
The president who expressed happiness that finally, he had assented the appropriation into law added that “thesigning of the budget today will trigger concerted efforts to reflate the Nigerian economy, a key element of which is an immediate injection of N350bn into the economy by way of capital projects. To illustrate our renewed commitment to infrastructural development, the 2016 budget allocates over N200bn to road construction as against a paltry N18bn allocated for same purpose in the 2015 budget”.
He said the budget was intended to signpost a renewal of his government’s commitment to restoring the budget as a serious article of faith with the Nigerian people.
This budget many times was sent to the president to sign and many times, he returned to the National Assembly due to irregularities he observed and soon after signing it, he promised that “henceforth the annual appropriation bill is presented to the National Assembly in time for the passage of the Act before the beginning of the fiscal year”.
The next line of action is for the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma to formally give a breakdown of the budget to Nigerians.
The task before the minister, according to the president, is to ensure that “further details of the approved budget, as well as our Strategic Implementation Plan for the 2016 budget, will be provided by the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning”, the president said.
President Buhari also hinted that he would be speaking about the budget in a planned nationwide address on May 29th, the date he was sworn in.
The stand of government is that “budget 2016 will be financed principally through foreign and domestic borrowings. All borrowings will however be applied towards growth-enhancing capital expenditures”, the president explained.