FEC APPROVES REVISED 2020 BUDGET

The Federal Executive Council has approved the review to the 2020 budget and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2020-2022 as recommended by the ministry of finance.

The budget has new benchmarks which now includes $25 per oil barrel, and a target production rate of 1.94 million barrels per day and then an exchange rate of N360 to $1, Finance minister Zainab Ahmed said while briefing State House correspondents on Wednesday.

Ms Ahmed said the revised budget now amounts to N10.5 trillion, a difference of about N71.5 billion when compared to the initial approved budget.

“This is because, as we cut down the size of the budget,” she noted, “we also have to bring in new expenditure previously not budgeted, to enable us adequately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Ms Ahmed said while the federal government will fund the budget by N5.158 trillion, the deficit from N5.365 trillion will be financed by both domestic and foreign borrowing.

Already both the Senate and House of Representatives have approved the borrowing plan of N850 billion by the federal government.

The minister said the plan was to borrow from foreign sources for 2020 and these “are all concessionary loans from the IMF which has already been approved and has crystallised, from the World Bank, Islamic Development as well as Afro EXZIM bank.”

“The borrowing, the multilateral loans drawdown coming from special accounts and coming from the privatisation will fund the fiscal deficit of N5.365 trillion that we have in the proposed amendment of the 2020 budget,” she added.

She also said an $80 million loan had been requested on behalf of Ebonyi State government from the Islamic Development Bank for the construction of Abakaliki ring road project, which would connect 13 LGAs in the state as well as the neighbouring Cameroon republic.

Other approvals