Senate has postponed the passage of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2018-2020 for the second time awaiting Organisation of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC)’s decision on Nigeria.
The debate will continue on Tuesday 5th December, 2017 after a decision might have been taken by OPEC in order to determine the oil benchmark for the MTEF.
Nigeria’s annual budget as well as the MTEF hinges on crude oil benchmark, hence, the outcome of OPEC’s meeting in Vienna, Austria today is vital to producing a working document on Nigeria’s budgets.
Prompted by a motion from Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, Senate agreed to step down the MTEF document until Tuesday when it would have known OPEC benchmark.
The country currently plans a budget of N8.61 trillion for 2018 with more than N4 billion expected to come from oil predicted on oil benchmark price of $45 per barrel and a daily oil production level of 2.3 million barrels.
As lawmakers debate on the proposed 2018 budget; many fear that these assumptions are not quite realistic.
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