From Abuja, Kenneth Udeh
The Senate Tuesday approved the 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper in preparation for the submission of the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.
In the course of their debate on the report submitted by the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriations , Senator Sani Musa ( APC, Nigeria East ), the Lawmakers also pressed for reduction in the petrol prices in view of the commencement of the Port Harcourt and Dangote Refineries.
According to their resolutions the Senate also approved the exchange rate projection of 1,400 USD for 2025-2027 with a provision for review in early 2025 based on prevailing monetary and fiscal policies. They also resolve that any excess on the official figure would be used for debt servicing.
The senate also tasked its Committees on Finance and Petroleum as well as Gas to investigate allegations of withheld funds by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), including NGN 8.48 trillion in petrol subsidies and $2 billion (NGN 3.6 trillion) in unpaid taxes, as highlighted by reports from NEITI and the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation, and Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
Recall that Tinubu, on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, transmitted the MTEF/FSP to the National Assembly for consideration, following the approval of the Federal Executive Council.
MTEF is a multi-year plan for public expenditure that sets targets for budget expenditure and fiscal policy. They are designed to ensure these objectives are respected throughout the budget process.
FSP, on the other hand, is a document that outlines a country’s fiscal policy and medium-term macro-fiscal framework. It’s a key component of the annual budget process and the Medium-Term Budget Framework.
Kebbi Central Senator Adamu Aliero (PDP) bemoaned the difficulty in bringing the Revenue Agencies to accountability , he revealed that the NNPCL is shortchanging the country with unremitted funds of over 20 Trillion Naira.
Speaking in favour of the exchange rate which was pegged at 1,400 Naira Senator Sani Musa said that any excesses will be used to service foreign debts.
He said; “Our projection for 2025 – 2027 is that our Naira for Dollar will be at 1400 as you know Foreign Exchange rate is determined by the market and any excesses will be utilised to pay our foreign debts to reduce our liabilities”.
Explaining why it is difficult to give an exact amount of the Nation’s Debt profile Sani Musa noted that the recently approved loan of 2.2 Billion Dollars is yet to be secured.
“I can’t give an exact amount of our foreign debt profile as at today, because we just approved another 2.2 Billion Dollars and the Team is on a road to get access to the money”.
“I will get the DMO. They are yet to finalise the transaction with only about 1.7 Billion can be accessed”, he remarked.
The Federal Government’s CNG initiative was used to emphasise why the 1400 Naira to a Dollar will be achieved by the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola.
He explained; “With the functioning of our refineries the demand for Forex will drop. With CNG initiative Nigerians will have an option for your information if you leave Benin to Lagos the amount of fuel is about 130 thousand but with CNG you can’t use more than 48 thousand Naira. Another issue to be addressed is the recurrent to Capital ratio which is very high.
The need to support the manufacturing industries was raised by Senator Yahaya Abdullahi PDP, Kebbi North if the projections of MTEF is to be achieved.
“We all know the volatility of Oil prices. Sadly a lot of the drivers of the economic growth of the country have shifted from oil to non oil. Non-oil is made up of more services”.
“Another problem is what kind of investment are we making in the real sector of the economy. The amount of taxes you can get from company tax is almost zero. You can’t tax companies that are making losses”, Abdullahi said.
An end to the use of Dollars for transactions was raised by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu ( APC, Abia North ), who called on the President to sign an executive order to stop the use of Dollars in the country.
He said; “The dollar rate is another issue , Nigeria is the only country using two currencies , we should abolish the use of dollars, the official rate of the United Arab Emirates is still at 3.2 Dirham to a Dollar”.
“People should stop using dollars to make payments. We must stop this. The President must sign an executive Bill to stop the use of Dollars in the country”.
Kalu also advocated for improved border security and an expected reduction in the price of petrol prices.
“We have to secure our borders , we must pay attention to secure our land, the bandits are still disturbing us.
“The MTEF can show some commendable efforts because other refineries are coming up, not only Dangote and some of other ones are coming up and it’s going to reduce the price of fuel”, Kalu noted.
Senator Abdul Ningi PDP, Bauchi Central berated the refusal of revenue agencies to make themselves available for scrutiny by the Senate and urged the Senate to take drastic steps to sanction such agencies.
He said; “If you look at the over 92 revenue generating agencies, you barely see a total absence of oversight and these agencies”.
“Even with agencies like the FIRS is hard to for the committee to get accurate figures from them. Unfortunately because with the way we are set up , we lack mechanisms to call these agencies to action to verify what they have submitted”.
“We must come up with a mechanism that when they refuse to submit accurate information they should be sanctioned. Some have been invited by the Committees they don’t show and nothing happens.
Speaking on the hardship in the country, Ningi commended the President’s efforts at ensuring the revitalization of the Port Harcourt Refinery. With the development Ningi argued that prices of Petrol is expected to drop which he said will bring succour to the citizens.
“I was part of the committee that went to see the Port Harcourt Refinery and I must commend Mr. President for making it work after 27 years”.
“What is disturbing is that one was commissioned in 1964 and 1978 but it’s unfortunate with what happened to the first one when you see you’ll know that there was internal sabotage”.
“By Today we need to see Petrol prices coming down,the National Assembly will start asking questions”, Ningi said.
In their resolutions the Senate presided by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio also adopted inflation rate projections of 15.75, 14.21 and 10.04 per cent for 2025, 2026 and 2017, respectively.
Also, in the recommendations, they concurred that “The 2025 Federal Government of Nigeria budget proposed spending of N47.9tn of which N34.82tn was retained. New borrowings stood at N9.22tn, made up of both domestic and foreign borrowings.”
Capital expenditure is projected at N16.48tn, with statutory transfers standing at N4.26tn and sinking funds projected at N430.27bn.