BREAKING: NASS To Get 2022 Budget In September—DG Budget

The Federal Government has said that the era where the budget was presented by the Executive and passed late by the National Assembly is over.

The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze said this during a public consultation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper for 2022-2024.

The preparation of the budget estimates for Ministries, Departments and Agencies usually take into consideration the Medium Term Policies/Strategies contained in the Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper which is the Federal Government’s pre-budget statement.

The MTEF/FSP outlines the development priorities of the Federal Government for the period covered.

In recent times, there have been disagreements between the executive and the National Assembly over the passage of the annual Federal Government budget.

As a result of the power tussle between the executive and the legislature, the budget implementation has always commenced very late into the year.

For instance, the 2011 budget was passed on March 25, 2011, while that of 2012 was passed on March 14 of that same year.

For the 2013 budget, it was passed by the lawmakers on December 20, 2012 and signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2013, while the 2014, 2015 and 2016 budgets were also signed in the month of May of each year.

The 2017 budget, which was submitted to the lawmakers in December 2016, was not passed and assented to until June of last year.

The 2018 budget, which was designed to consolidate on the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, was presented to the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.

It was passed by the lawmakers on May 16, 2018; transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari on May 25 and assented to on June 20.

The presentation of the 2020 Budget by was done by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2020 and also in the same month for the 2021 budget.

Akabueze said the timely presentation of the budget by the government has demonstrated that it is committed to having a budget that works for the people.

He said the public consultation for the MTEF is part of the commitment of the government to have a budget that works.