TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the revised 2020 budget into law.

According to Tolu Ogunlesi, his special assistant on digital/new media, the president signed the revised budget into law around 11:04am on Friday.

Nigeria had to revise its budget estimates and assumptions after a drop in crude oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic affected global supply chains.

“Assumptions underlying the 2020 appropriation act are no longer sustainable,” Buhari said.

He also assured that ministries, department and agencies will be given 15 percent of their capital allocation by the end of July.

Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, told lawmakers on Thursday that the president would sign the budget on Friday.

The president submitted the initial 2020 budget to the national assembly in October 2019 and signed it into law in December 2019.

After the pandemic hit, the president submitted a revised version of the budget to the national assembly in May.

The original budget size when it was signed into law in December 2019 was N10.594 trillion.

The initial adjustments made to the budget resulted in a N318 billion cut bringing the budget size to N10.276 trillion.

However, the federal executive council at its May 13 meeting increased the total sum of the revised budget to N10.523 trillion, a difference of just about N71.5 billion when compared to the approved budget.

On June 11, the senate increased the total size of the revised budget by N5 billion from N10.805 trillion to N10.810 trillion.

According to the finance minister, changes made to the budget include a revision of the daily crude oil production benchmark to 1.94 million from 2.18 million barrels per day.

The exchange rate has also been adjusted from the initial N305/$.