Finance Minister Consults NASS Leadership Over 2021-2023 MTEF, FSP

Adebayo Obajemu

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed on Thursday met with the leadership of the National Assembly on plans to submit the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) later this month.

The Minister while briefing principal officers of the Senate and House of Representatives led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari had given directives for the Ministry to expedite action on next year’s budget estimates to enable him present the 2021 budget proposal to the National Assembly by the end of September this year.

Mrs. Ahmed further disclosed that in keeping strictly with the January – December budget cycle, the President will on Friday sign into law, the revised N10.8 trillion budget for the year 2020 passed by the National Assembly in June.

This for us is a journey towards ensuring that the progress that we have made as a collective to return the fiscal year to January – December is maintained for the 2021 budget as well.

“The President has directed that we must deliver the budget to the National Assembly by the end of September,” the Finance Minister said.

Ahmed while giving an update on the 2020 budget implementation between January and May 2020, stated that the Federal Government’s retained revenue was N1.48 trillion.