Senate Passes 2024-2026 MTEF-FSP, Limit Waivers to NGOs

*Bans importation of locally manufactured commodities 

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate on Wednesday passed the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).

The approval followed the presentation of the report of a Senate Joint Committee chaired by Senator Sani Musa.

The panel scrutinised details of the estimates proposed by the various federal ministries, departments and agencies in the fiscal document.

The red chamber during the document’s consideration at plenary, approved a borrowing plan of N7.8 trillion  for 2024, N9 trillion budget deficit and Federal Government total expenditure of N26 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year.

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, after an extensive deliberation on the document put the approval of the fiscal document to a voice vote and it was overwhelmingly supported by the members.

Specifically, the upper chamber pegged the oil price benchmark of $73 per barrel of crude oil, 1.78 million barrels per day and sustained, as contained in the MTEF/FSP documents.

It also approved the special intervention (recurrent) of N200bn, special intervention(capital) of N7b billion and and an exchange rate of 700 naira to a United States dollar.

The Senate also resolved that all items locally produced should be banned from importation.

The joint committee had in the report,  observed that a significant number of the Federal Government’s revenue-generating agencies engaged in arbitrary, frivolous and extra-budgetary expenditure.

Their recommendation that a review of the laws of all revenue generating agencies be carried out, was approved by the Senate.

The red chamber therefore urged the National Assembly to begin the process of amending the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA, 2007) in order to enhance the agencies’ ability to enforce fiscal responsibility and impose sanctions on erring corporations.

The Senate during the session considered the joint panel’s recommendation that the subsidiaries of NIPOST were irregular and illegal hence they should be wound-up and deregistered.

Members of the Senate argued extensively on the recommendation by the joint panel that the sum of N10bn released by the Ministry of Finance for the proposed NIPOST restructuring and recapitalization be thoroughly investigated.