Economy
Budget: NASS Must Not Fight Presidency—Udoma
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, has explained that success in producing a good 2017 Budget will require strong collaboration between the Executive and the National Assembly.
He made this known during a programme held in Abuja on Monday.
While stressing that an important tool for achieving economic recovery and sustainable growth will be the 2017 Budget, he said that it is important to always remember that both the Executive and the National Assembly will benefit politically from a budget that successfully turns the Nigerian economy around and brings prosperity to the people.
According to him, now that the country’s economy has entered a recession, stakeholders should all agree on prudent allocation of resources to key capital projects that will help to lift the economy out of recession and onto the path of sustainable growth.
“All the key stakeholders must understand and appreciate the overall budgetary constraints as well as implications of some fiscal trade-offs,” the Minister said.
Mr Udoma, at the ‘Gallery Colloquium’ organised by Orderpaper.com on ‘Budget as a critical tool for effective Executive-Legislative relations’, said the current economic situation in the country provides an opportunity like never before, for the two arms of government to set a template for succeeding governments on how national interest can be placed ahead of institutional contests.
“The National Assembly must not see itself as in competition with the Executive,” he advised.
Explaining the budgetary process, Mr Udoma said that the President, as the leader of the country, has the ultimate responsibility of delivering economic benefits to Nigerians in an all-inclusive manner based on his mandate or manifesto; therefore it is his responsibility to drive the process by setting out the framework of the Budget and all the heads of expenditure.
“It is also his role, as President, to articulate the national vision guiding the budget. And he must get each annual budget right because he has opportunity to produce only three more budgets before his tenure comes to an end,” he added.
The Minister said that in processing and considering the Budget estimates therefore, the National Assembly should see themselves as working as partners with the President to achieve the national aspirations set out by the President.
“In doing so, the question of which arm of government is superior in budget formulation should not arise, as everyone’s objective must be the success of the government in bringing the dividends of democracy to the people,” he indicated.
According to him, at this time in particular, the President needs the strong support of the Legislature to implement the tough decisions required to stimulate this economy and bring it to sustainable inclusive growth, not dependent on the vagaries of the oil price.
While maintaining that the two arms of government have a major role to play in bringing economic prosperity to the people, the Minister called attention to the fact that if the government fails, neither the Executive nor the National Assembly can completely escape the blame.
He however was confident that the members of the National Assembly appreciate the economic situation facing the country as a result of the failure over the last thirty years to successfully diversify the Nigerian economy from dependence on crude oil.
Government, he said, has a plan not just to get the economy out of recession but also back on the path of sustainable growth. Adding, the plan involves injecting a fiscal stimulus to provide funding for the 2016 Budget, which was carefully designed to reflate the economy but unfortunately has been affected by revenue shortfalls.
The Minister further stated, “It is important to stay the course in implementing the major structural changes which had been outlined by the Government in our Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP). The spending priorities in the 2017 Budget will be guided by the objectives we set out in the SIP”.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara agreed that there was need for an effective collaboration between the Executive and the Legislature in the budgetary process to reduce the usual friction between them during the process of appropriation.
Dogara who was making some remarks on ‘Legislative perspectives on the budget process’ said that a review of how annual budgets or Appropriation Bills have been prepared and executed in Nigeria since 1999 will reveal an unsatisfactory state of affairs, adding that there was an urgent need for Budget Reform in Nigeria.
He therefore suggested a review of the legal framework to ensure that the annual budget is submitted and passed on time before the commencement of the next financial years; a clear development plan with broad national consensus; extensive stakeholder consultation at the executive level during preparation of the budget; clear budgetary objectives and government targets to be achieved should be clearly spelt out; and there should be a robust pre-budget interface between the Executive and the Legislature to reduce areas of friction during the appropriation process, among others.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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