By Umar Suleiman
- Says Implementation Commences Forthwith
President Muhammadu Buhari has just signed the N21.83 trillion 2023 Appropriation Bill into law.
The President, during a brief signing ceremony inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, had senior government officials present.
President Buhari received the Bill, which was passed by both the Senate and House Representative last week, from his Senior Special Assistants on National Assembly Matters, Senator Jide Omoworare (Senate), and Nasiru Ila (House of Representatives).
President Buhari said the implementation of the 2023 budget would commence without delay.
He charged the National Assembly to consider the re-visiting the changes made to the proposal by the lawmakers.
He, however, directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to engage with the Legislature to revisit some of the changes made to the Executive budget proposal.
What the President is Saying:
The President said: “It is my hope that we will receive cooperation in this regard from the National Assembly.
“The 2023 Budget that I have the honour of signing into law today provides for aggregate expenditures of N21.83 trillion, an increase of N1.32 trillion over the initial Executive Proposal for a total expenditure of N20.51 trillion.
“As is customary, the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning will subsequently provide more details of the approved budget and the supporting 2022 Finance Act.
“We have examined the changes made by the National Assembly to the 2023 Executive Budget proposal. The amended fiscal framework for 2023 as approved by the National Assembly shows additional revenues of N765.79 billion, and an unfunded deficit of N553.46 billion.
“It is clear that that National Assembly and the executive need to capture some of the proposed additional revenue sources in the fiscal framework. This must be rectified.
“I have also noted that the National Assembly introduced new projects into the 2023 budget proposal for which it has appropriated N770.72 billion.
“The National Assembly also increased the provisions made by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by N58.55 billion.
“Nevertheless, considering the imminent transition process to another democratically elected government, I decided to sign the 2023 Appropriation Bill into law as passed by the National Assembly to enable its implementation to commence without delay.
“I have however directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to engage with the Legislature to revisit some of the changes made to the Executive budget proposal, and it is my hope that we will receive cooperation in this regard from the National Assembly.
“I also urge the National Assembly to reconsider its position on my proposal to securitize the Federal Government’s outstanding Ways and Means balance at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“As I stated, the balance has accumulated over several years and represents funding provided by the CBN as lender of last resort to the government to enable it to meet obligations to lenders, as well as cover budgetary shortfalls in projected revenues and/or borrowings.
“I have no intention to fetter the right of the National Assembly to interrogate the composition of this balance, which can still be done even after granting the requested approval.
“Failure to grant the securitization approval will however cost the government about N1.8 trillion in additional interest in 2023 given the differential between the applicable interest rates which is currently MPR plus 3% and the negotiated interest rate of 9% and a 40year repayment period on the securitised debt of the Ways and Means”, he said.
In case you missed this:
On 7 October 2022, President Buhari had presented the 2023 fiscal budget to the joint session of the National Assembly, where he proposed an annual budget of N20.51 trillion for the year 2023, a 19.8% increase when compared to the N17.13 trillion approved for 2022 including the supplementary budget.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had last week explained the delay of the the passage of the appropriation was due to some anomalous figures presented by the executive to the legislature for consideration.
Witnesses to the budget signing
Senior members of government who joined him at the signing were the Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Speaker House of Representative, Femi Gbajabiamila; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; and Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari.
Others are Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Assembly, Zainab Ahmed; Minister of state Budget and National Assembly, Clem Agba; Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze and staff of the budget office.
![CPPE Pleads with CBN, Buhari to Review Process of Returning Old Notes The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise [CPPE] has pled with the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) and President Muhammadu Buhari to review the process through which Nigerians can return the old naira note they have at hand without losing their hard-earned money. In a statement signed Sunday by its chief executive officer, Muda Yusuf, CPPE beseeched the government to give a human face to the, lamenting that the agony and trauma inflicted by the entire management of the policy is unspeakable. Accordingly, CPPE urged the apex bank to allow the old 1,000 and 500 naira notes to be deposited at the commercial banks to ease the current pains and ordeal of returning the old notes. It further added: “The process should also be simplified to accommodate millions of rural dwellers, the informal sector players, the over 30 million unbanked Nigerians and several millions that are not literate. “The current guidelines which require filling of forms on the CBN portals, generating codes etc. does not reckon with millions of Nigerians that seek to return their old notes who are not literate, who don’t have access to internets and who are in very remote locations in various parts of the country. “They are Nigerians and are entitled to a fair consideration in the implementation process.” The Centre said most of the vulnerable victims of poor execution of the policy are women, microenterprises and small businesses which are contributing immensely to employment, poverty reduction and social stability at the bottom of the economic pyramid of the country. “It is bad enough that their lives and livelihoods have been terribly disrupted and disoriented. “We plead with the CBN to review its processes in the interest of fairness, justice and social inclusion,” the Centre said. Current approach Practically Impossible Meanwhile, the Centre said the current approach being employed by the apex to handle the process is evidently impractical. “It is impractical for the CBN offices to properly handle the process of receiving old currency notes which are still in abundance in the hands of millions of Nigerians. “It noted that there is only one branch of the CBN office in each state of the federation and the FCT. “It is practically impossible for the CBN to manage this process without subjecting our citizens to another round of harrowing experience.” It said the experience and images and disorderliness of the past few days at the CBN offices graphically illustrates this position. Conflicting Directives Businessmetrics reported that the CBN last week issued two conflicting directives within few hours which further heightened tension. While the CBN was believed to have directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country to start taking deposit of old 1,000 and 500 naira notes of not more N500,000 from their customers, the apex bank deny same directive hours later which led to more confusion for Nigerians. Nigeria is currently undergoing the process of withdrawing the old version of N1,000 and N500 notes from the system, to be replaced with the redesigned version of the currency notes as well N200 which, President Muhammadu Buhari, however, said would still remain a legal tender in the meantime. In the face of scarce new notes coupled with old notes still held by Nigerians outside the banking system, the February 10 deadline given by the CBN to swap the noted has led to economic disruption and hardship for most Nigerians as they remain cashless.](https://businessmetricsng.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WhatsApp-Image-2023-02-20-at-12.13.47-AM-400x240.jpeg)
![CPPE Pleads with CBN, Buhari to Review Process of Returning Old Notes The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise [CPPE] has pled with the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) and President Muhammadu Buhari to review the process through which Nigerians can return the old naira note they have at hand without losing their hard-earned money. In a statement signed Sunday by its chief executive officer, Muda Yusuf, CPPE beseeched the government to give a human face to the, lamenting that the agony and trauma inflicted by the entire management of the policy is unspeakable. Accordingly, CPPE urged the apex bank to allow the old 1,000 and 500 naira notes to be deposited at the commercial banks to ease the current pains and ordeal of returning the old notes. It further added: “The process should also be simplified to accommodate millions of rural dwellers, the informal sector players, the over 30 million unbanked Nigerians and several millions that are not literate. “The current guidelines which require filling of forms on the CBN portals, generating codes etc. does not reckon with millions of Nigerians that seek to return their old notes who are not literate, who don’t have access to internets and who are in very remote locations in various parts of the country. “They are Nigerians and are entitled to a fair consideration in the implementation process.” The Centre said most of the vulnerable victims of poor execution of the policy are women, microenterprises and small businesses which are contributing immensely to employment, poverty reduction and social stability at the bottom of the economic pyramid of the country. “It is bad enough that their lives and livelihoods have been terribly disrupted and disoriented. “We plead with the CBN to review its processes in the interest of fairness, justice and social inclusion,” the Centre said. Current approach Practically Impossible Meanwhile, the Centre said the current approach being employed by the apex to handle the process is evidently impractical. “It is impractical for the CBN offices to properly handle the process of receiving old currency notes which are still in abundance in the hands of millions of Nigerians. “It noted that there is only one branch of the CBN office in each state of the federation and the FCT. “It is practically impossible for the CBN to manage this process without subjecting our citizens to another round of harrowing experience.” It said the experience and images and disorderliness of the past few days at the CBN offices graphically illustrates this position. Conflicting Directives Businessmetrics reported that the CBN last week issued two conflicting directives within few hours which further heightened tension. While the CBN was believed to have directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country to start taking deposit of old 1,000 and 500 naira notes of not more N500,000 from their customers, the apex bank deny same directive hours later which led to more confusion for Nigerians. Nigeria is currently undergoing the process of withdrawing the old version of N1,000 and N500 notes from the system, to be replaced with the redesigned version of the currency notes as well N200 which, President Muhammadu Buhari, however, said would still remain a legal tender in the meantime. In the face of scarce new notes coupled with old notes still held by Nigerians outside the banking system, the February 10 deadline given by the CBN to swap the noted has led to economic disruption and hardship for most Nigerians as they remain cashless.](https://businessmetricsng.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WhatsApp-Image-2023-02-20-at-12.13.47-AM-80x80.jpeg)