The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, has given an indication that President Muhammadu Buhari may not sign the controversial 2016 budget soon.
The minister, who spoke to news men shortly after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting today, Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, said that talks on the grey areas in the budget are still in progress.
He said: “on the 2016 Budget, we are still talking. On the expectation that we will soon have a budget, the monitoring and evaluation mechanism are designed to make sure that the budget delivers what it promises. That mechanism was looked at by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and approved.”
Udoma said that the meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari also took a look at he 2017 budget, adding that a timetable had been approved.
He said that the purpose of drawing up time table for the 2017 budget is enable the executive to present it to National Assembly and ensure its passage this year.
According to the minister, the Council took a look at the report of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group which in partnership with the National Planning Commission (NPC) organized an economic summit last year and made various recommendations. [myad]