The Minister of Budget and National Planning in Nigeria, Senator Udo Udoma has revealed the reasons why the federal government is retaining the $38 oil benchmark with optimism that the falling crude oil prices will in no way affect the nation’s 2016 budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Senator Udoma spoke on Monday at a meeting with members of the National Assembly Committee on Budget and Planning.
He told the lawmakers that there was a plan to cushion all shortfalls that may arise as a result of the drop in oil prices.
According to him, part of the plans would include concession of airports and re-introduction of toll gates on the nation’s highways.
“Now we are in the beginning of February and the price that we projected is for the whole of 2016 and not a January price. So it is too early to say whether it will be realised or not.
“We did say that we will have a midterm review of the budget. So we already have built-in mechanisms to deal with situation that arises that is different from our projections,” he told the lawmakers.
In the last few months, issues surrounding the implementation of the 2016 budget has been a public debate. The nation’s mainstay of revenue is crude oil sales.
Its practicability is more worrisome for most Nigerians, as the Federal Government pegged the 2016 oil benchmark at $38 dollars per barrel.
Besides assuring Nigerians that this year’s budget will be a success, the Minister of State for National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) would go through a performance test quarterly.
“We do intend to have a robust monitoring and evaluation framework. We will get to a point when we are able to have performance forecast for each MDA so that we are tracking key performance indicator for every MDA.,” Mrs Ahmed stated.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget and Planning, Senator Musa Kwankwaso, called for a synergy between the Ministry and the National Assembly to make the nation’s budgeting system effective.
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