The 2017 Nigerian budget,
signed into law by the acting president a month ago, has still not been
finalised and is being amended due to disagreements between parliament
and the presidency. Any delays to government spending could hobble recovery in Africa’s largest economy, now in its second year of recession.
The 2017 budget,
still not finalised in the second half of the year, was meant to spark
that return to growth after the first downturn in a quarter of a
century.
The presidency and senior lawmakers had also
promised that it would avoid the severe delays in passing the previous
year’s budget, which was signed off in May 2016 — five months into the
budget year.
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo signed Nigeria’s 2107 budget into law last month.
The
delays for the 2017 budget come as the presidency locks horns with the
National Assembly over projects added to the document in a practice
known as “padding” — lawmakers’ efforts to funnel money and development
to their local jurisdictions at the expense of the federal government.
“Before
the budget was signed it was agreed between the executive and the
lawmakers that those insertions of some new projects into the budget
made by the National Assembly should be removed and replaced with the
priority projects of the federal government which the lawmakers
removed,” a presidency official told Reuters, declining to be named
because they were not authorised to speak to media.
Osinbajo
signed this year’s budget, despite it not being finalised, because the
process had already dragged on for too long, the official said.
Last
year’s budget was similarly delayed for months by disagreements between
lawmakers and the presidency over spending plans that cut the supply of
government money and deepened the economic crisis.
Last
month, Buhari said in a statement that the 2018 budget proposal will be
submitted by October and parliament will conclude the process by
December so the country can return to a normal budget cycle from next
year.
Original report by REUTERS
Edited from Daily Trust