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Nigeria: President Jonathan signs budget into law
Nigeria President., Goodluck Jonathan. PHOTO/File
(Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed the 2012 budget into law on Friday, keeping all the key figures the same as approved by parliament last month as expected.
Jonathan said total expenditure would be 4.697 trillion naira (US$ 30 billion) with an additional 180 billion naira (US$ 1.1 billion) for special programmes, which takes spending to 4.877 trillion naira (US$31.1 billion).
“It is a budget of fiscal consolidation, inclusive economic growth and job creation,” Jonathan told reporters at the signing ceremony.
Delays to the budget, widespread corruption and a patronage culture mean many of the capital projects proposed in budgets never get completed, leaving infrastructure dilapidated. Jonathan, like his predecessors, pledged to change this culture.
“One of the main goals of this administration is to complete and exit the large stock of ongoing projects and programmes. Thus, the 2012 budget is focused on completing viable ongoing projects,” he said.
Capital expenditure was 1.34 trillion naira (US$ 8.5 billion), little more than a quarter of the total, meaning Africa’s biggest oil producer spends most of its money on keeping government running.
The spending plans assume a US$72 a barrel benchmark oil price, up from US$70 in the proposal submitted by Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in December, boosting revenues available to the government.
