A GDP growth of 9 percent is expected in the 2018 budget, says President Buhari

President Buhari  presented an expenditure budget of N8.6tn today, which is twice the size of Nigeria’s budget three years ago.

President Buhari noted that the administration through its logical and user friendly reforms has been able to move the country on the ranking of countries in ease of doing business from 169 in 2016 and recently to 146.

Dubbed the ‘budget of consolidation,’ the budget was about 16 per cent increase from the N7.44 trillion appropriated in 2017.

The budget is focused on the following:

Power:

President Buhari noted that the country has grown tremendously its power generation sector but still has challenges in areas of distribution; he stated that

In sourcing for alternative means of power, FG have signed agreement with 14 solar companies

The President said 9.8 billion Naira will be set aside for the Mambilla power project and N300 billion for construction and rehabilitation roads.

Budget provision to the Niger Delta Development Commission has increased from N53.89 billion from N34.2 billion in 2017.

Food security:

President Buhari says food security is an important aspect of his administration’s security agenda ; and anybody involved with food smuggling is a threat to national security and will  be dealt with

The President said 6 crop processing zones will be established in 2018 to develop infrastructure for production and processing of crops

Oil Price:

Mr. Buhari announced that the budget is projected at an oil price of $45 per barrel and an estimate of 2.3 million barrels per day.

He added that the budget is further projected on an exchange rate of N305 to $1, a real Gross Domestic Growth of 3.5 per cent and inflation rate of 12.4 per cent.

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At present, domestic debts account for about 79% of the total debt. We will reduce this to 60% in 2018 and increase external to 40%.

Capital expenditure:

President Buhari said over 766km were constructed or rehabilitated across the country in 2017

He noted that he have spent time in identifying alternative means of funding capital projects in the 2017 budget. For example, the N100 billion Sukuk financing for construction of 25 roads across the country

Debt financing:

President Buhari said contractors were being owed trillions of Naira when this administration came into power. In some, he said FG have made payments while in others they are assessing the liabilities