…Alarmed over 10 percent budget implementation
…Alleges $9billion spent to stabilise Naira
By Taiye Odewale Abuja—
Senate yesterday summoned the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and her Budget and National Planning counterpart, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma to appear before it for explanations on poor implementation of the 2017 budget and the general state of the nation’s economy.
It also declared that the poor implementation of the budget may drag Nigeria back into another round of economic recession, just as it frowned at the $9billion allegedly spent on naira stabilisation by the federal government.
These resolutions were sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (APC Kebbi state).
The upper legislative chamber specifically noted that with just about three months to the end of the year, only about 10 percent of the N7.4 trillion 2017 budget has so far been implemented.
In the motion tagged “Stabilising and sustaining post-recession growth of the economy”, Senator Abdullahi made it clear that the level of harmony between the fiscal and monetary policies of government is still very low.
The motion which was unanimously passed by Senators lamented that $9 billion has been spent by government so far for the purpose of stabilising the Naira.
Asking the executive arm of government to do everything possible to avoid a relapse into another recession, the Senate “urged the national economy managers to remain focused and ensure that the current weak growth of a mere 0.55 percent is built upon and increased substantially in the months and years to come”
It equally urged the fiscal and monetary authorities to come together and harmonise fiscal and monetary policies with a view to drastically reducing the high interest rate that has adversely affected borrowing for investment by the real sector of the economy.
Similarly, the upper chamber further “urged fiscal authorities to drastically reduce the accumulation of domestic debt in order to free the market for better access by the private sector”
Seconding the motion, Senator Barau Jibril (APC, Kano State) asked that the managers of the nation’s economy be put on their toes so that they would not be complacent.
According to him, the failure to release money to fund the budget has become a serious threat to the economy.
In his own contributions, Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) claimed that “our economy managers are just joggling the economy using ways and means to manipulate it”
He said:”If it is true that the foreign reserve has grown from $25 billion to $34 billion, why are we incapacitated in funding the 2017 budget? We must say the truth; we must go back to the drawing board and take key decisions. We must engage in massive production and we must engage in massive spending too.
“What we have done is not a genuine approach to addressing the problem of the economy and getting out of recession.”
Senator Biodun Olujumi (PDP Ekiti South), while noting that Nigeria is only technically out of recession but still languishing in economic quagmire, lamented that barely three months to the end of the year, the 2017 budget had not recorded 10 percent implementation.
According to her, the major problem is that the economic managers were yet to develop a viable economic blue print.
Also in a similar motion titled : “Inadequate releases in the 2017 Budget and the need to expedite releases in Order to Stimulate the Economy”, sponsored by Senator Gbenga B. Ashafa (APC, Lagos East), the Senate expressed concerns that since the 2017 budget was assented to by the President, only about N310 Billion Naira has been released by the Federal Government to Ministries, Departments and Agencies as funding for capital projects, which he said is far too low to stimulate the economy to address our present economic challenges;
The capital component of the 2017 budget is in the sum of N2.177 trillion “we are worried that the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in line with the prevalent concern of financial analysts, stated during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the bank which took place on 25th July, 2017 that the government needs to move quickly to start capital expenditure spending as contained in the 2017 budget to reflate the economy in a way that will impact Nigerians positively”, he said.
