PMB, Adeosun, Emefiele Meet Over Economy, Budget Performance

The presidential spokesman said, “Also discussed were monetary policy strategies and their economic impact, among others.

“President Buhari, while reminding the Ministers and CBN Governor that reviving the economy was one of the major planks on which the campaign of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was based, expressed gladness that things were looking up after two years of yeoman’s job”

“Urging them to keep at it, the president noted that the main aim of government was to bring succour to Nigerians across all walks of life”.

President Buhari was away in the United Kingdom for medical treatment when then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was acting president signed the 2017 appropriation bill into law on June 12, 2017. The total budget figure signed is put at N 7.44 trillion.

The National Assembly had passed the 2017 Appropriations Bill on May 10 after increasing the N7.28 trillion earlier proposed by Buhari in December last year to N7.44 trillion.

When contacted yesterday to provide details of how much has been released from the 2017 budget so far, director in the ministry of finance, Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta said he doesn’t have such record.

“Come to our office tomorrow so that we can both work on it”, he simply said.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s external reserves have continued to accumulate despite the frequent interventions of the Central Bank of Nigeria at the foreign exchange market as the 30-day moving average of the reserves stood at $31.599 billion as at August 18, 2017.

The latest data provided by the apex bank is a 21.1 per cent or $5.5 billion increase since the beginning of the year when it was $26.094 billion.

The external reserves had accumulated $755.79 million within the month of August when it reached the $31 billion mark.

Although the price of crude oil, the country’s major foreign exchange earner, has been hovering between $46 and $49 per barrel, an increased inflow of capital as well as a more liberalised foreign exchange market had eased up the pressure at the foreign exchange market.

This saw the value of the naira which had breached the N500 to the dollar mark at the parallel market earlier in the year ease to N365. The naira yesterday closed at the parallel market at N370 to the dollar.