TheNewsGuru

Tag: 2017 Budget

  • Nigeria borrowed over N2tn local, foreign loans to fund 2017 budget – DMO

    The Debt Management Office (DMO) on Monday said the Federal Government borrowed a total of N2.32tn in 2017 to fund deficit in the budget.

    DMO said this in its 2017 Annual Report made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday.

    According to DMO, the total amount was borrowed from both the domestic and the foreign debt markets.

    The report said, “The total borrowing of N2, 321.77bn, comprised N1, 067.50bn and N1, 254.27bn from foreign and domestic sources, respectively, was raised to fund the 2017 budget deficit.

    “The FGN Bond issuances dominated primary bond market activities as the government continued to issue bonds to finance its budget deficit and refinance maturing obligations among others.

    “The Federal Government introduced three new products into the domestic debt market, namely: FGN Savings Bond, Sovereign Sukuk Bond and Green Bond.

    “In the corporate bond market, there was a decline in activity relative to 2016, as corporates raised only N21.5bn in three issues in 2017, representing 75 per cent decline from N86.1bn in 2016.”

    It added, “In 2017, the FGN shifted its focus by borrowing mainly from the external sources, thereby reducing its participation in the domestic debt market so as to create ample space for the private sector to access credits, and also as part of its debt strategy to reduce its borrowing cost and reduce pressure on investable funds in the domestic market with the aim of depressing borrowing cost.

    “Between February and April 2017, the DMO successfully issued Eurobonds for a total of $1.5bn for a tenor of 15 years in two tranches ($1bn Eurobond and an additional $500m Eurobond), under the $4.5bn Global Medium-Term Note Programme.

    “These two Sovereign Eurobonds became the first foreign currency denominated Bonds to be listed at The Nigerian Stock Exchange and the FMDQ OTC PLC.

    “In November, 2017, $3bn Eurobonds were also issued: 10-year $1.5bn and 30-year $1.5bn. The issuance of the 30-year Note was a landmark achievement as the tenor represents the first by a Sub-Saharan African country other than South Africa, and importantly establishes the bases for long-term infrastructure financing, which is the priority of the present government.”

    According to the report, in the same year, the Federal Government also issued its first $300m Diaspora Bond in the International Capital Market to part finance the 2017 budget.

    The debut Diaspora Bond offered Nigerians resident abroad the opportunity to partner with the government in its efforts to stimulate economic growth.

    The DMO said that the bonds became the first issued by an African nation aside South Africa, which was registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • FG completes 88 road projects captured in 2017 budget – FERMA

    The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) on Thursday said over 88 capital road projects captured in the 2017 budget nationwide had been completed.

    Maryam Sanusi, spokesperson of FERMA, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    Mrs Sanusi said another 66 road projects that were also captured in 2017 budget were currently at 50 per cent completion.

    She listed some of the completed road projects to include rehabilitation of Biu-WanDali road, in Borno, Garkida-Gombi highway, Adamawa and general maintenance and repairs of Bauchi- Ningi, in Bauchi State.

    The rehabilitation of Awe-Iwo federal road in Oyo State, Benin-Abraka road in Edo; construction of feeder road from Iyah-Obelle in Kogi, rehabilitation of Ribah-Diri-Rijau road in Kebbi State, among others.

    Mrs Sanusi, however, said that the agency was making efforts to ensure that all the roads mapped out for maintenance were completed as and when due.

    “The assurance is that as long as adequate funds are available, the agency will ensure that all roads mapped out for maintenance are completed.’’

    She said that all Federal Trunk `A’ roads, were the agency’s main focus, adding that it carried about 90 per cent of total volume of transportation of goods and services.

    According to her, these roads are major contributors to the socio-economic and political development of our country.

    “Aside budgetary allocation, the additional sources of funding as captured in the agency’s Act are yet to be explored. The agency rely on budgetary allocation for its roads maintenance activities.’’

    Mrs Sanusi called on Nigerians to use the roads responsibly and patiently with consideration to other road users, adding that if there where damage along the roads everyone suffers.

    “I will want Nigerians to know that the road is an asset. We use to access our communities and work places. I want Nigerians to know that using the roads responsibly allows free movement of traffic.

    “Nigerians should be patient with FERMA because we know the importance of roads. We are on a tremendous transformation drive as far as road maintenance is concern,’’ she added.

  • 2017 budget must run till May 31 – Saraki tells FG

    2017 budget must run till May 31 – Saraki tells FG

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said the 2017 budget will have to run till the end of May 2018 when the 2018 budget must have been passed.

    His comment, which was directed at the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, followed a point of order raised by Atai Aidoko (PDP, Kogi East).

    Aidoko brought the attention of the senate to a circular issued to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), which states that 2017 budget funds will be “mopped up” by March 31.

    He said it contravenes the provisions of section 3(1) of the constitution, adding that the section mandates that the budget runs for 12 months after the presidential assent.

    The senator explained that the directive is causing panic in the system, citing the MDAs like ”the SDG that just got money for special projects only last week, some contracts have not even been awarded, so how can they award contracts and these contracts, the monies must utilised before the end of 31st of March?”

    President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the 2017 budget in May 2017. On Tuesday, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Mustapha Dawaki, disclosed that the National Assembly had written to the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation on the need to continue funding for the 2017 budget till May 31.

    Reacting to the point of order, Saraki directed the Ministry of Finance to rescind the circular, adding that it does not have the powers to do so.

    He mandated the chairpersons of the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Finance to communicate to the Minister of Finance and MDAs that the budget should run for 12 months.

    “The budget runs for 12 months and it goes through May. Chairman of Appropriations is not here. Chairmen of Finance, both of you are here, hence, you will need to communicate to the Minister of Finance and all agencies that the budget was passed to run 12 months, and it must run for 12 months,” he said.

    He added that rounding off the budget before its legally stipulated date was not acceptable, as it had to be included in an appropriation act which needed to be compiled and sent to the National Assembly.

  • Reps to extend validity of 2017 budget to May 31

    The House of Representatives is perfecting moves to extend validity and spending in the 2017 budget to May 31 passage and presidential assent of the 2018 budget.

    The moves were made known on Tuesday by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Mustapha Dawaki during a joint public hearing on the national budget held at the National Assembly.

    Recall that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogar had last week announced that the 2018 budget will be laid before both chambers on April 19 and passed on April 24.

    Dogara said the harmonised date was decided by both chambers of the National Assembly.

    Dawaki further disclosed that the lawmakers had written to the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, to extend the budget.

    “We are told that the Office of the Accountant-General is expected to close the account as at March ending.

    “We have written a letter yesterday, drawing his attention to the fact that the budget should be extended to May 31st. But if the passage of the budget, scheduled for April 24, is done and gets the president’s assent, whichever comes earlier, then the Accountant-General should also strictly adhere to the contents of the letter,” he said.

    He further asked all contractors to continue working, adding that “budget account will not be closed until budget is passed and accepted by the president or until the 31st of May, 2018.”

    In his opening remark, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, stressed that the Public Hearing on the Budget as part of the enactment process, has come to stay.

    He explained that the National Assembly was concerned about government-owned enterprises whose operating surpluses have always been significantly lower than projections.

    “Invariably, over the years, the performance of independent revenues has fallen short by at least 50 per cent. While we work towards setting new performance standards for government corporations as well as developing stronger oversight frameworks to improve performance in independent revenues, we do expect more realistic projections of Corporations operating surpluses,” he said.

    Saraki emphasised the need for the Finance Bill, urging the government to show clarity and consistency in its policies and to see how these will square up to its financial projections for 2018.

    “While it is important to achieve equity and balance in the spread of development projects around the country, we must also prioritise human capital development. It is in this vein that the National Assembly will prioritise expenditure on critical health and education facilities as well as soft infrastructure,” he added.

  • FG to release N750bn to fund capital projects in 2017 budget

    The Federal Government on Monday said the sum of N750bn would be released this week to Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for implementation of capital projects contained in the 2017 budget.

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, gave the figure while speaking during a meeting with a delegation of investors from France.

    She said the government had previously released the sum of N450bn for capital projects, adding that with the additional N750bn, a total sum of N1.2tn would have been invested in infrastructure projects.

     

    Details later…

  • AfDB cancels Nigeria’s $400m loan request to fund 2017 budget

    The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called off a loan to Nigeria that would have helped fund the country’s budget.

    It has instead redirected the money to specific projects, a vice president at the lender said on Monday, according to Reuters.

    The AfDB had been in talks with Nigeria for around a year to release the second, $400 million tranche of a $1 billion loan to shore up its budget for 2017, as the government tried to reinvigorate its stagnant economy with heavy spending.

    But Nigeria has not met the terms of the international lenders, which also included the World Bank, to enact various reforms, including allowing its currency, the naira, to float freely on the foreign exchange market.

    Rather than loan Nigeria money to fund its budget, the African Development Bank is likely to take at least some of that money and “put it directly into projects,” Amadou Hott, African Development Bank vice-president for power, energy, climate change and green growth, told Reuters in an interview during a Nordic-African business conference in Oslo.

    Because prices for oil, on which Nigeria’s government relies for about two-thirds of its revenues, have risen and the naira-dollar exchange rate has improved, the country is relying less than expected on external borrowing, Hott said.

    No one from the Nigerian finance ministry was immediately available to comment.

    Nigeria’s 2017 budget, N7.44 trillion, is just one in a series of record budgets that the government has faced obstacles funding, pushing it to seek loans from overseas.

    In late 2016, the AfDB agreed to lend Nigeria a first tranche of $600 million out of $1 billion. But negotiations over economic reform later bogged down, blocking attempts to secure the second tranche of $400 million, sources told Reuters then.

    Now, AfDB’s loans will be more targeted, Hott said.

    “It’s hundreds of millions of dollars, just in one go, that we were supposed to provide in budget support, but we will move into real projects … “ he said.

    Earlier this month, the head of Nigeria’s Debt Management Office said the country is still in talks with the World Bank for a $1.6 billion loan, which will help plug part of an expected $7.5 billion deficit for 2017.

    The administration is also trying to restructure its debt to move away from high-interest, naira-denominated loans and towards dollar loans, which carry lower rates.

     

     

  • We’ll finance 2017 budget with recovered loots – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has said the Federal Government will finance the 2017 budget with parts of the recovered loots.

    The President said this at the 22nd Annual Conference of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.

    He was represented by the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Idris Ahmed.

    He said the government had resolved to use some of the recovered stolen funds to finance the 2017 budget

    Buhari said, “My Administration has practically done much in delivering on its core focus of diversifying the economy.

    “Part of the stolen funds recovered is being used by government to finance the 2017 budget.

    “Power generation has peaked at an all-time high of 7,001 Megawatts in the third quarter of 2017.”

    The president also disclosed that his administration was aiming at the production of 10,000 Megawatts of electricity by the year 2020.

    He said the firm implementation of the Treasury Single Account since September 2015 had significantly enhanced transparency in the Federal Government’s Public Financial Management System.

    Speaking at the conference, ANAN Chairman of Council, Alhaji Shehu Ladan, pledged the support of the association to the government’s economic agenda.

    Ladan said, “The accountant is key. We are calling on our members to increase their integrity quotient. As an association, we are strengthening our discipline mechanism to ensure that members found wanting do not go unpunished.”

    He said it was important for the government to ensure the reinvestment of the recovered stolen funds to make for quicker recovery of the economy.

  • 2017 budget: FG, Senate disagree over capital vote

    • FG released about 15 percent of the N2.177 trillion voted for capital project
    • Senators warn FG action could cause serious injury to the economy

    The Senate on yesterday disagreed with the Federal Government over plans to release an insignificant fraction of the N2.177 trillion capital vote in the 2017 budget.

    This followed a revelation by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, that the government could only release N440 billion out of the total amount.

    Adeosun, who was joined by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, told the senators during an interactive session that the government lacked adequate funding for the budget.

    The ministers said government intends to release over N100 billion this week, in addition to the N310 billion earlier released in the 2017 budget.

    According to the ministers, it would be extremely difficult for the government to meet obligations in capital budget, pointing out that there was N2.3 trillion deficit in the 2017 capital budget.

    Adeosun said the 2017 budget was projected mainly on external borrowing, adding that making further capital releases would depend on how fast the government could push the borrowing process.

    She informed the lawmakers that domestic borrowing would not be enough to fund the gaps in the budget, stressing that the cost of domestic borrowing was getting too high.

    She said borrowing from foreign sources was far cheaper than domestic borrowing.

    She said even if the funds were to be available, the government cannot release the entire N2.177 trillion capital vote within the three months left in the year.

    Consequently, the ministers said about 60 percent of the 2017 capital budget would be rolled over to the 2018 budget, just as that of 2016 was similarly rolled over till May this year.

    Senators kick

    Worried by the huge gap in the capital budget and the actual amount to be released, the senators warned that the trend could cause serious injury to the economy.

    The senators drew a parallel between Nigeria and Brazil in the handling of economic recession in the two countries.

    The Brazilian economy had suffered recession for eight consecutive quarters but came out of it with 2.46 inflation rate and 10 percent misery rate.

    The lawmakers had challenged the two ministers to explain why the Nigerian economy, which suffered recession for five consecutive quarters would come out with 16.5 percent inflation rate and over 50 percent misery rate.

    Senator Danujma Goje, Chairman of the committee said: “If the trend of poor releases continues like this, Nigerians will die off. It’s not good to raise people’s hopes and dash them. In implementing the January-December fiscal system, we should be careful not to sacrifice half of the 2017 budget.” To roll over 60% of 2017 capital projects to 2018.

  • Comments on 2017 budget: Fashola appears before Reps, denies insulting lawmakers

    The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) has appeared before members of the House of Representatives to clear the air on his alleged offensive comments on the 2017 budget.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the minister had about a month ago raised the alarm that the National Assembly ‘smuggled’ some strange items into the 2017 budget.

    In his words: “What I have in my budget now is primary healthcare centres, boreholes,’’ he said at an interactive session with editors on Thursday.

    “That was the meeting we had with the Acting President and that was the reason why the budget was not signed on time.

    “We were ask to complete those abandoned projects; the budget of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National Assembly from N31 billion to N10 billion.

    “We are owing the contractors about N15 billion and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.

    “Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15 billion to N10 billion and about N3 billion or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget.’’

    Fashola added: “Everybody is complaining about power supply but they also cut the budget for Manbila power project and the Bodo bridge that connects the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Station was also cut and all these were also discussed.

    “If after we have defended the budget and we had gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation?’’

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the National Assembly members took offence and lashed out at the minister saying his attempt to blackmail them before the public will not work. They further summoned him to appear before them to clear the air on his comments on the budget.

    The minister who appeared before the honourable members alongside his aides as early as 9.45am told the Aliyu Madaki-led adhoc committee that there was no time he deliberately disparaged the National Assembly as alleged.

     

    Details later…

  • Repair of Tin – Can Apapa Expressway not captured in 2017 budget – Official

    The Director-in-Charge of Highway Management at the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr Chukwuwike Uzo has said that Federal Government did not capture expenses for the repair of the dilapidated Tin – Can Apapa expressway in the 2017 budget.

    Uzo noted that it was high time private investors join hands with the government to fix some of the roads as the ‘government cannot do everything.’

    The director said this at the ongoing Summit on the “Establishment, management and operations of Transit Truck Parks” in Abuja.

    Uzo said that, hopefully, the repair of the roads would be included in the 2018/2019 budget, adding that the government is currently constructing a Truck park opposite Tin Can port that would accommodate 340 trucks.

    In his words: “The government cannot do everything that is why we are calling on investors to see the opportunities in investing in these infrastructures. The main objective is ensuring safety on our roads”.