FG Gives Update On 2019 Budget

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has said that assessment of the 2019 Appropriation Bill will be completed soon and a report will be rendered to President Muhammadu Buhari.
She said this yesterday in Abuja, while addressing a news conference on the state of the Nigerian economy.
Usman said the 2019 budget had been submitted by the National Assembly to the president and that they were currently at the final stage of the review to enable the president decide on assenting to the bill that had been presented to him.
According to her, it is expected that this will happen as quickly as possible.
She explained that the law provided for spending the current year’s budget on a provisional basis for salaries and recurrent expenditure, adding that the capital budget for 2018 was still running until the new budget comes into place.
“So we have a situation whereby we have two different periods running side by side, so at any point in time, we have a budget that is running.
“The law allows us on a provisional basis to run 50 per cent of the previous year’s provision on the current year’s budget.
“When the budget is assented to, we will now transfer all the transactions that have happened to the 2019 budget, so there is no gap.”
Usman, however, said that the executive would work with the ninth National Assembly, to streamline the process and return to the January-December cycle.
She also said that as at Tuesday, N2.079 trillion had been expended for capital expenditure from the 2018 budget.
On implementation of the new National Minimum Wage, she said that the financial implications had been worked out by the Presidential Committee that was set up and that the report had been submitted to the president.
“We have looked at the report and what we are working on now is how we can finance it.
“Apart from the increase of the minimum wage from N18, 000 to N30, 000, there is also consequential adjustment that we have to negotiate with the labour unions.
“The total implication of that would be worked out only after the negotiations and that would involve determining how much increase every other staff that is above the minimum wage would get.