Finally, after the many controversies surrounding the
signing of the 2017 budget, Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo on Monday signed the ‘budget of recovery
and growth’ into law.

Big relief, you may say, considering that this is coming
six months after it was first presented to the national
assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The national assembly had passed the N7.44 trillion
budget on May 11.

It is N143 billion more than the N7.30 trillion
appropriation bill presented to the legislature on
December 14, 2016.

What changes will the implementation of the budget
bring to Nigerians?

FAREWELL TO ECONOMIC RECESSION

A strategic thrust of the 2017 budget is ensuring that
Nigeria gets out of this recession and back on the
path of growth.

Udoma Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national
planning, had said at an Abuja town hall meeting that
the budget was designed to take the country out of
recession while assuring that Nigerians would
experience its impact.

He had also said back in January that the federal
government’s game plan through the budget is to
“stimulate and attract private sector capital and
private sector spending” with adequate government
spending.

OPERATORS OF SMES, AGRO-ALLIED
BUSINESSES IN NIGERIA WILL SOON SMILE

There is no doubt that Nigeria has in recent years
“wasted” its large foreign exchange reserves through
the importation of virtually everything: food, clothing,
manufacturing inputs and even fuel.

Unfortunately, the country has the potential to produce
most of these and even have enough to export to
other countries.

This is possibly why President Buhari had, during the
presentation of the budget, said the budget will help
bring an end to such imports.

Hear him: “We will increasingly grow and process our
own food, we will manufacture what we can and refine
our own petroleum products. We will buy ‘made in
Nigeria’ goods. We will patronize local entrepreneurs.

We will promote the manufacturing powerhouses in
Aba, Calabar, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Nnewi, Onitsha,
and Ota. From light manufacturing to cement
production and petrochemicals, our objective is to
make Nigeria a new manufacturing hub.”

A SECOND ABUJA AIRPORT RUNWAY
UNDERWAY

Ahmed Lawan, senate leader, had told journalists that
the national assembly earmarked funds for the
construction of a second runway for the airport in the
2017 budget.

Lawan had said the project and some other projects
were covered from the difference in the $42.5 oil
bench mark proposed by the executive and the $44.5
passed by the legislature.

“We have been able to capture for example the second
Abuja airport runway which we all need in this country;
we have suffered from having only one,” he had said.

IMPROVED PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS

The 2017 budget is clearly designed to expand
partnership between public and private sectors.

Udoma Udo Udoma had, during the public presentation
of the budget proposals, said the budget includes
development capital “to leverage and catalyze
resources for growth.”

To actualize this, Udoma said the budget would focus
on critical on-going infrastructure projects that have
quick positive effects on the economy.

He said it will also “utilize special economic zones and
industrial parks as vehicles to accelerate domestic
economic activity for innovation and wealth creation,
contribute to food security and create platform for
agro-business in agriculture supply chains through the
Agriculture Green Alternative Plan.”

SECOND NIGER BRIDGE, LAGOS-IBADAN
EXPRESSWAY… HIGH PRIORITY PROJECTS

The Lagos-Ibadan expressway arguably tops the list
of roads giving Nigerians grievous nightmares.

So in the form of a rescue mission, the federal
government had captured it along with the second
Niger Bridge among the “critical economic routes” in
the country to be fixed in the 2017 budget.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and
housing, had while defending the 2017 budget
proposal by the ministry, said the ministry had
proposed a budget of N564.2 billion for the three
sectors and parastatals under it.

‘Works’ alone accounts for N311.49 billion of the total
sum.

NEW LOOK FOR THE ABEOKUTA AIRPORT

Danjuma Goje, chairman of senate committee on
appropriation, had while presenting the budget to the
upper legislative chamber told the lawmakers that the
committee had also captured the upgrading of the
Abeokuta airport.

“The committee made some landmark interventions in
the critical sectors of our national life,” he had said,
and “this includes…the rehabilitation and upgrading of
Abeokuta Airport.”

“We have also made adequate provision for the
completion and take-off of Barinda Port under the
Nigeria Inland Waterways.”

A BIGGER TAX BASE FOR BUDGET FUNDING

A chunk of the key budgetary reform initiatives the
2017 budget aims at one direction: improving the
revenue base of the country.

And to achieve this, the government plans to enforce
additional oil-related revenue through royalty
recoveries, marginal field licenses as well as early
licensing renewals.

It also intends to “broaden the tax base, improve
effectiveness of revenue collecting agencies, improve
tax compliance, reduce leakages by tacking trade mis-
invoicing and introducing the single window to drive
customs efficiencies”.

MORE DEBTS

Nigeria’s debt profile has risen to about N19 trillion,
following huge deficits from the 2016 budget, as a
result of low oil prices and lower government revenue.
In 2017, the budget deficit is put at over N2 trillion. To
finance the 2017 budget, the government will not just
be required to broaden the tax base, but also take
some loans to bridge funding gap.

This will inevitably raise the country’s debt profile over
the next fiscal year.

TheCable