FEC pegs $77.96 crude benchmark, N750/$ exchange rate for 2024 appropriation bill
…Approves $1bn support loan from AfDB
…Tinubu to present budget to N’Assembly today
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has pegged its 2024 projections for crude oil and the dollar to naira exchange rate at $77.96 and N750 respectively.
This new projection is a deviation from the earlier projection announced by Atiku Bagudu, Minister of budget and planning in October.
Bagudu had earlier stated that the FEC established a reference price of $73.96 per barrel for crude oil and an exchange rate of N700/$ as key assumptions for budgetary planning.
“Now, it was presented on the background of the commendable measures that have been taken since June in order to restore macroeconomic stability by particularly the deregulation of petroleum prices, in which we maintained that subsidies are gone and indeed the regulation of the foreign exchange market,” he said.
Nigerian NewsDirect however gathered that the projected crude oil price benchmark by the Federal Government is below the $94.91 projection of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the $100 a barrel forecast by Goldman Sachs for next year.
This raises questions to the projections of the government to avoid a huge deficit by 2024 when the budget is being implemented.
Speaking with journalists after the FEC on Monday approved the 2024 budget, Bagudu revealed that the new budget is N1.5 trillion higher, than the initial N26 trillion earlier approved by the Council before the passage of the Medium Term Framework and Fiscal Policy document, by the National Assembly.
He disclosed that the Council also approved a revised Medium Term Economic Framework and Fiscal Policy document which will be represented to the National Assembly alongside the 2024 Appropriation Bill, describing the budget as “a process until it is signed into law.”
The council also approved a concessionary budget support loan of $1b from the African Development Bank ( AFDB).
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, made this known.
Edun said that the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms committee headed by Taiwo Oyedele, briefed the Council on its recent report presented to the President.
He noted that the committee has affected the economy, helping to boost the fiscal position of the government and assisting to increase tax revenue to GDP, to 18 percent in Nigeria, from the current 7.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Nigerian NewsDirect gathered that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will present the 2024 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday barring any last minute changes.
The Secretary, Research and Information Department at the National Assembly, Dr Ali Umoru, confirmed this to journalists.
It was gathered that the number and category of persons to be given access into the National Assembly Complex will be restricted on the day due to space constraints and security.
