President Muhammadu Buhari will submit the 2021 budget estimates to the National Assembly next week, Dr. Ahmad Lawan President of the Senate has said.
He made this known in his address while welcoming his colleagues from an eight-week recess, where he called on the senators to embark on necessary oversight functions on the Federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), to assess the performance of the revised 2020 budget.
He noted that the lawmakers would devote the month of October for budget defense while November will be for the internal processing of the document.
Meanwhile, Lawan revealed that the revised 2020 Appropriation Act suffered over $14 billion loss due to the country’s overdependence on oil. He told his colleagues that Nigeria was faced with a $14 billion revenue shortage during the current fiscal year.
He emphasized the need for the country to focus on other important sectors such as agriculture, solid minerals and steel development and manufacturing with a view to diversifying the nation’s economy.
His words: “We need to work with relevant stakeholders to prevent our economy going into a recession, stimulate the economy, save and create more jobs through a sustainable multiplier effect.”
Furthermore, he stressed that the Federal budgetary plan was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic; thus the need for the review of the 2020 budget and the upper chamber carrying out oversights to ensure that the revised 2020 budget is properly implemented
InlandTown! 2020
