The signing of the revised 2020 budget by President Buhari and the decision by the Nigerian government to stop subsidizing petrol are the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Punch reports that Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, met with the leadership of the National Assembly on Thursday to discuss the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
She disclosed that the President Muhammadu Buhari, would sign the 2020 revised budget on Friday (today).
Briefing principal officers of the Senate and House of Representatives led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the minister said that Buhari had given directives for the ministry to expedite necessary action so that he could present the 2021 budget estimates to the National Assembly by the end of September this year.
Ahmed said, “In keeping strictly with the January–December budget cycle, the President will tomorrow (Friday) sign into law, the revised N10.8tn budget for the year 2020, which was passed by the National Assembly in June.
“This for us is a journey towards ensuring that the progress that we have made as a collective to return the fiscal year to January – December is maintained for the 2021 budget as well. “The President has directed that we must deliver the budget to the National Assembly by the end of September.”
The newspaper also said that Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said on Thursday that the Federal Government had reached a conclusion that it could no longer bear the burden of petrol subsidy.
Sylva said this in a statement published on the ministry’s Instagram page, with the title ‘Deregulation: The facts and the reasons behind the policy’.
“After a thorough examination of the economics of subsidising PMS for domestic consumption, the Federal Government concluded that it was unrealistic to continue with the burden of subsidising PMS to the tune of trillions of naira every year, more so when this subsidy was benefiting in large part the rich, rather than the poor and ordinary Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, deregulation means that the government will no longer continue to be the main supplier of petroleum products but will encourage the private sector to take over the role of supplier of the products.
The Sun says that the Naira fell to N463 to a dollar on the black market Thursday from 461 the previous session after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) moved to unify the multiple exchange week, traders said.
Traders were said to have bid up rates in anticipation of demand shifting to the unofficial market. The CBN is yet to resume dollar sales to retail currency agents, the Bureaux de Change (BDCs) patronised by individuals.
This is coming as the excess crude account stood at $72.41 million as of July 7, according to the Finance Minister, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, yesterday.
Ahmed gave the figure during a meeting of the National Economic Council. The oil savings account, which holds dollar reserves from sales of crude above the assumed benchmark price, contained $324.54 million as of November 20 last year.
The newspaper also reports that as part of measures to implement the proposed Service Reflective Tariff (SRT), power distribution companies (DisCos), yesterday, asked the Federal Government to fund the rollout of meters to close the six million gap before 2024 deadline.
Speaking on behalf of the DisCos at the House of Representatives public hearing on the power sector in Abuja, the Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), Ernest Mupwaya, disclosed that historically, the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) provision in Nigeria’s electricity tariff has been inadequate to cover the cost of metering customers.
He stated: “Over the years, there has been insufficient investment in customer metering due, largely, to inadequate Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) CAPEX and uneconomic tariff. The approved CAPEX for DisCos has never been adequate for comprehensive metering.
The Nation newspaper says that the Managing Director, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, has warned officials of the agency against violations of financial regulations and inappropriate financial dealings.
He spoke while briefing the audit personnel department of the agency, stating that he would not tolerate tampering with financial regulation and corruptive activities in procurement and financial management departments.
Adesugba warned that he will strictly enforce extant rules and financial regulations.
“There will be no breaching of due process in procurement and other financial transactions. I expect both departments to ensure proper record keeping and observance of internal processes,” he said.
GIK/APA