President Buhari presents N7.298tn budget for 2017

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja presented a budget of N7.30tn for 2017 before a joint session of the National Assembly.

Buhari, who arrived at the assembly Chambers at 1.55p.m., apologised for shifting the time for the presentation of the appropriation bill from 10a.m. to 2 p.m.

He explained that the delay was informed by his sudden trip to The Gambia in an attempt to avert possible political in that country, occasioned by the insistence of President Yayah Jameh.

The president said that N2.24tn, representing 30.7 per cent of the 2017 budget, would be committed to capital expenditure aimed at pulling the economy out of recession as quickly as possible.

He said the capital expenditure was increased from N1.8tn in 2016 to N2.24tn in 2017.

The president also announced N2.98tn as recurrent expenditure for the 2017 fiscal year.

He said, having reviewed the trends in the global oil industry, the government had decided to set a benchmark price of $42.5 per barrel and a production estimate of 2.2m barrels per day for 2017 fiscal year.

According to him, the aggregated revenue available to fund the 2017 is N4.94tn, 28 per cent higher than the 2016 budget.

He said that oil was projected to contribute N1.99tn of the amount and non-oil revenue would be contributing N1.73tn.

Source:  News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)