President Buhari signs 2019 budget into law Monday; Minister Udoma breaks it down Tuesday
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign the 2019 Budget of Nigeria into law on Monday, May 27, 2019.
He had presented the budget proposal of N8.83 trillion to the National Assembly, which, after 132 days, on Tuesday, April 30, 2019, passed the Bill into law, having adjusted the figure upwards to N8.92 trillion.
A Presidency source that confirmed that the Budget signing ceremony will take place on Monday, also said that on Tuesday, May 27, 2019, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, will perform the Budget Breakdown before handing over the Ministry to the Permanent Secretary.
All the other Ministers are also expected to hand over their respective ministries to their Permanent Secretaries on the same day as directed by President Buhari during the Valedictory Session of the Federal Executive Council, FEC.
The issue of a January to December budget cycle has been in the front burner of discourse for some time with the Executive and Legislature passing the buck and Senator Udoma addressed the matter frontally at his End-of-Tenure press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, May, 21, 2019.
He had said “There is no legal requirement for the budget year to run from January to December. However, a January to December fiscal year is more predictable and would help the private sector and other economic players in planning because most economic players run a January to December fiscal year. Also, it would be much easier to track budget performance if both the recurrent and the capital budgets run from the same dates. It is therefore desirable to return to the January to December fiscal year.”
However, he said further, “to return to the January to December fiscal year for a budget when the operation of the current budget only commenced in June or July is a very challenging assignment. In order to achieve a return to a 1st of January commencement date the budget must ideally be delivered to the National Assembly by September. But when you are operating a budget which commenced only in June, or July, by September you would have had no idea how the existing budget is likely to perform. Indeed, given the procurement process, for a budget which starts running in June or July, there might have been little or no capital releases by September.”
In short, he concluded “the only way to return to a January to December fiscal year, under those circumstances, is for there to be agreement between the Executive and the National Assembly to produce a budget on the basis of significant assumptions. This will require a very close working relationship of trust and synergy between the two arms of government. Unfortunately, we were unable to achieve this in the last four years. I am hopeful that in Mr. President’s second term we might have a situation where the Executive and the leadership of the National Assembly are much more aligned. This will help not only to be able to achieve a return to the January to December fiscal year, but to have a much smoother budget process.”
It is not clear whether Senator Udoma would be returning to the Ministry to continue the structured approach he has adopted to Budgeting and National Planning. Sources say he is reluctant to return but that pressure is being mounted on him to come back and continue the laudable programs he initiated in the Ministry, especially the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
