President Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the National Assembly. The document, which was received at the plenary session of both chambers on Wednesday, 24th September 2019 sets out the Federal Government’s economic, fiscal and monetary objectives ahead of the 2020 budget presentation and as required under the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The submission of the MTEF and FSP is a prelude to plans by President Buhari to present the 2020 budget to the National Assembly in the coming week.
Highlights of the documents include its N7.16 trillion proposal as the amount available for the Federal government budget, its $55 oil benchmark price and projected oil output of 2.1m barrel per day. These figures are against the N6.99 trillion approved as the amount available for the Federal government budget that was passed by the National Assembly in April 2019 and the oil benchmark of $60 with a projected output of 2.3m barrels per day. The exchange rate for both the 2019 and 2020 fiscal year however remained at N305 per dollar.
Other interesting observations from the MTEF/FSP document include a reduction in the statutory transfer to the Niger Delta Development Commission (from N100.188, 921,129 to N72,454,5,251) , National Assembly (from 128,000,000,000 to 125,000,000,000) and the Independent National Electoral Commission from (N45,500,000,000 to N40,000,000,000). The statutory transfer proposal for the National Judicial Council for the 2020 fiscal year however remained same with the N110,000,000,000 that was passed by the National Assembly in 2019 while the proposal for the Human Rights Commission for N2,500,000,000 in the document will significantly increase from the N1,500,000,000 approved by the National Assembly in 2019 if passed. In addition to this, the document highlights the allocation of N49,413,811,647 as special transfer to the Nigeria Police Trust Fund following the passage of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act in June, 2019 which provides for the welfare and training of Nigerian police personnel. The document further indicates a significant drop in Grants and Aids for Technical/Donor Assistance from the N209,915,780,857 that was approved in 2019 to N36,392,600,000 in 2020.
The National Assembly is expected to expedite passage on the 2020-2022 MTEF and FSP whose projections are required for eventual budget passage under the Fiscal and Responsibility Act, 2007.