Satisfied that it had weathered the storm over the 2016
budget, the Federal Government has raised a special
committee that is saddled with the task of monitoring its
smooth implementation in order to give Nigerians real
value.
The committee, according to the Budget and National
Planning Minister, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, is headed
by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who is effectively
saddled with the task of tracking the performance of the
budget and reporting back to the President for necessary
action.
This comes after a breakthrough appeared to have been
made between the Presidency and the National Assembly
over the budget.
The two sides met on Tuesday night for some hours and
deliberated on the controversial areas and resolved the
thorny areas.
The meeting, according to competent source, was to
deliberate on grey areas that had forced the NASS to
return the fiscal document to the executive and
generated untold tension in the land over the weeks.
Among those said to have attended the meeting, were
ministers responsible for finance and national Planning,
the leadership of the Senate and House of
Representatives as well as officials responsible for
revenue generation.
Also in attendance were heads of Finance and
Appropriate committees in the National Assembly and
other officials of the budget office.
A top source close to the meeting told Saturday
Vanguard on Friday that it was ‘probably the last in the
series’ to break the deadlock in the budget row even
though it was the third to be held within the last one
month.
“We are confident that a solution had been found to the
controversial issues in the budget document before the
NASS. The truth of the matter is that the controversy
arose because some people did not want to go with
President Buhari’s Zero-budget having been used to the
‘envelop system”.
“Despite all the furore over the budget, the truth remains
that there is nothing wrong with it; the final figure is not
affected despite what some persons tried to add to it.
“Hopefully, a common ground has now been found that
would pave the way for the passage of the budget within
the next two weeks so as to move the country forward,”
the source said.
Udoma while receiving a delegation from the Nigerian
Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture
(NACCIMA) expressed optimism that this year’s budget
would bring about economic growth for Nigerians.
The Minister said the budget was structured according to
the realities of the Nigerian economy; as the country
could no longer continue to depend on only oil to fund its
budget.
Udoma said, “Our 2016 Budget is designed to have
capital component of 30 per cent that will reflate our
economy and provide Infrastructural growth for investors
to leverage upon.”
Acknowledging the private sector as the engine room of
development, Senator Udoma told the delegation that
the present administration is fully committed to building
an investment friendly environment for the organized
private sector, which is part of why this year’s budget
gave prominence to infrastructure development.
He agreed that the private sector required sound and
effective infrastructure to operate and assured that
government was doing everything possible to ensure
that the engine room of the economy runs smoothly.
This desire of government, he explained, was why it
deliberately decided that this year’s budget must align
with planning needs, pointing out that the structure of
the budget is very good as it does not only address
development needs but does not entirely depend on oil
as its only source of funding.
He assured that Government was fashioning out policies
that would encourage export and domestic production in
its determined effort to ensure that most of the things
consumed in the country are produced in Nigeria.
Earlier, the national president of NACCIMA, Chief Bassey
E. Edem had applauded the Zero-based budget system
adopted by the Federal Government and particularly the
diversification policy of the present administration.
While stressing the need for a focused infrastructure
development effort to better the state of roads, rail and
electricity in the country, the NACCIMA president advised
to give priority attention to agriculture and solid minerals
development as these were capable of providing
alternative sources of bulk income for the country.
He called for the establishment of export villages in some
parts of Nigeria for the sake of regularly showcasing the
country’s export potentials and guaranteeing product
quality.
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