Highlights of 2016 budget as signed by Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has finally signed 2016 Appropriation Bill into law, making it effectively an Act of the National Assembly.

The N6.06 trillion 2016 budget was signed on Friday, ending weeks of disagreement with the National Assembly.

The National Assembly passed the budget on March 23, but the president withheld his assent and returned the document.

The Presidency said the lawmakers added new projects and removed critical items proposed by the administration.

The two arms reconciled controversial figures, and transmitted a clean copy of the budget to the president on Thursday.

Here are highlights of the budget as passed by the National Assembly:
Aggregate expenditure — N6, 060,677,358,227
Statutory transfers – N351, 370,000,000
Debt service – N1, 475,320,000,000
Recurrent expenditure – N2, 646,389,236,196
Capital expenditure – N1, 587,598,122,031
Fiscal deficit – N2, 204,936,925,711.16
Deficit/GDP – 2.14 per cent

The parameters proposed by Mr. Buhari were retained.
Oil price benchmark and crude oil production were left at US38 per barrel and 2.2000mbpd respectively.
Similarly, the exchange was left at N197/USD1.

Tagged “Budget of Change”, Mr. Buhari presented the 2016 Appropriation Bill to joint session of the National Assembly last December, proposing N6.08 trillion as aggregate expenditure, before it was reduced by the lawmakers to N6.06 trillion.