Buhari Signs Revised 2020 Budget Into Law

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The revised 10.8 trillion 2020 appropriation bill has been signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The President appended his signature on the document on Friday morning at a brief ceremony held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The reviewed 2020 budget was passed by the National Assembly last month after it was presented to the parliament by the executive through the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.

It was the second time the appropriation bill was reviewed this year following the economic crisis caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

One of the media aides of President Buhari, Mr Bashir Ahmad, announced that the budget was signed into law this morning.

According to him, Mr Buhari, “at exactly 11:04am, signed into law, the revised N10.8 trillion budget for the year 2020, the revised budget was passed by the National Assembly, last month.”

The major changes to the budget were the downward review of the oil benchmark for the year to $25 per barrel, while the crude oil output was put at 1.4 million barrels per day.

Earlier, the executive had lowered that benchmark to $30 per barrel from the $57 per barrel it initially pegged the price when it was passed in December 2019.

According to Mrs Ahmed, the yardstick was reduced by the government because of the low prices crude oil was selling at the market.

Nigeria depends on revenue from the sale of the black gold to fund the budget and it is projected that things will get worse this year because of the health pandemic.

Crude oil once sold below $20 per barrel at the international market this year, forcing some producers under the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies led by Russia under the aegis of OPEC+ to agree to cut supply by 10 percent.

In April, they struck a deal to reduce global output by 9.7 million barrels per day in May and June. This worked like magic and the deal was extended till July.

Unless another agreement is reached to push the cut till August, oil producers may revert to the initial deal to cut supply by 7.6 Mbpd until end of the year, and then to 5.6 Mbpd through 2021 until April 2022.