Ahead of preparation of the 2017 budget, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategic Paper (FSP) 2017 to 2019.
Briefing state House correspondents at post-Cabinet meeting, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo-Udoma, said the 2017 budget will be anchored on assumptions of $42.5 per barrel and 2.2 million barrel per day production of crude oil.
According to him, there were wide consultations with stakeholders, including state governors and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) before the consideration and final FEC approval.
Udoma spoke further, “As you know, the Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the executive to prepare the MTEF and send it to the National Assembly for consideration.
“And it is on the basis of the MTEF that the next budget will be fashioned. So, in short, we have started the process of preparing the 2017 budget.
“Let me share with you some of the key parameters and assumptions which will be underpinning the 2017-2019 MTEF.
“Oil price benchmark: We intend to use 42.50 dollars as reference price in 2017. We are projecting 45 dollars in 2018 and 50 dollars in 2019.
‘So, we are keeping to the very conservative in terms of the reference price of crude oil, even though we are expecting it to go higher than this. But, we are keeping to an extremely conservative price scenario.
“In terms of oil production, we are keeping to the same level of this year for 2017 and that is 2.2 million barrels per day.
“For 2018, 2.3 million barrels per day and for 2019, 2.4 million barrels per day. In terms of growth rate, we are targeting three per cent growth rate in 2017 and 4.26 per cent growth rate in 2018 and a 4.04 per cent growth rate in 2019.
“Before the MTEF was presented to FEC for consideration, there was extensive consultation with the private sector, governors and NGOs.
“We intend to intensify effort to diversify the economy, we intend to go on with the implementation of ongoing reforms in public finance, we intend to enhance the environment for ease of business so as to generate private sector and private investment.
“We also intend to continue to pursue gender sensitive, pro-poor and inclusive social intervention schemes similar to what we did in 2016, our social intervention programmes are going to be sustained.”
