Following President Buhari’s notification informing lawmakers of his intention to present the 2019 Appropriation Bill, lawmakers at a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives converged on Wednesday, 19 December 2018 to receive the document.
Termed the “Budget of Continuity”, the N8.83 trillion budget proposal is predicated on an average oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day, oil benchmark price of $60 per barrel, exchange rate of N305 per dollar, inflation rate of 9.98 percent and real GDP growth rate of 3.01 percent.
The proposal comprises of:
- Statutory transfers –36 billion;
- Debt Service – 14 trillion
- Sinking fund – N120 billion to retire certain maturing bonds
- Non-debt recurrent expenditure- N2,427,665,113,222 trillion and
- Capital expenditure – 031 trillion
However, barring National Assembly’s intervention, the 2019 budget presented, is leaner than the N9.1 trillion budget lawmakers eventually approved in the 2018 Appropriation Budget.
Some of the highlights from the President’s budget speech at the National Assembly focused on efforts to move Nigeria from a trade deficit to a surplus, commitment to infrastructural projects, agriculture, social investment and power. The President also utilised the platform to address the issue of minimum wage as he promised to set up a Technical Committee to devise ways to ensure its implementation would not lead to an increase in borrowing. Following this, the President has committed to sending a Finance Bill (detailing the economic implications of a new minimum wage) alongside a new minimum wage Bill increasing the salaries of workers from N18, 000 to N30, 000 to the National Assembly.
While the President has urged lawmakers to prioritise the passage of the budget amidst election campaigns, it is very likely that the 2019 budget will tow the path of late budget passage; as its predecessors. The National Assembly who have now adjourned plenary to Wednesday, 16th January, 2018 is also yet to begin deliberation on the 2019-2021 MTEF and FSP document, which should ordinarily have been passed before the President’s presentation on Wednesday.