LAGOS, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Seven months after the Nigerian government submitted the country's 2018 budget to National Assembly (NASS), President Muhammadu Buhari reluctantly signed the 9.12-trillion-naira (25.2 billion U.S. dollars) budget on Wednesday.
The president, who signed the budget in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, however, expressed concern over changes made by the NASS to the budget proposal.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Oct. 26, 2017 approved the 2018 draft budget of 8.61 trillion naira but the NASS increased the budget to 9.12 trillion naira.
The Senate also increased the crude oil benchmark for the budget from 45 U.S. dollars per barrel to 50.5 dollars per barrel.
Buhari told his audience with concern that the National Assembly made cuts amounting to 347 billion naira in the allocations to the 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to 578 billion naira.
The various projects for which the National Assembly denied funds are critical and may be difficult to implement with the reduced allocation, Buhari said.
Among them are the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project.
Buhari said the National Assembly slashed funding to them by an aggregate of 11.5 billion naira.
Senate spokesperson Aliyu Abdullahi said the Senate was in agreement with the statement issued by the House of Representatives.
He said the leadership of both chambers have directed the chairmen of their committees on appropriations to provide detailed explanations on all the points raised by the president.
"It should however be noted that the action of the National Assembly while working on the budget was informed by the provision of the Constitution on the need for inclusion, balance and the fact that the first responsibility of government is the security and welfare of all citizens," he added.
Evans Osabouhien, a senior economist at the Covenant University in southwest Ogun State, said the late passage and signing of the budget into law was unfortunate and capable of creating shocks in the economy.
Osabouhien said it was completely out of fashion to sign a budget that should be running from January to December in the middle of the year, adding that countries willing to grow and compete favorably among their peers sign budgets early to run full term.
Olukunle Iyanda, president of Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM), also expressed concerns over the alteration of the budget by the National Assembly.
Iyanda told reporters in Lagos that the National Assembly has made the public perceive it as an obstacle to the budget process.
He said a more agreeable budget was expected after the delay, which had put on hold activities across all the sectors of the economy.
According to him, projects such as roads, electricity, and security that were of benefit to majority of the citizens must be top priority in any budget planning and execution.
(The official exchange rate was 361 naira to 1 U.S. dollar as at the time the budget was prepared)
