By Dipo Olowookere
On Wednesday, January 18, 2017, the Nigerian Senate finally passed the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).
This came three months after the MTEF/FSP was submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly approval.
The lawmakers had delayed the passage of the MTEF/FSP since its submission in September 2016 for being “empty.”
The upper legislative chamber had also threatened not to allow President Buhari present the 2017 budget in December 2016 if the MTEF/FSP was not passed.
However, this threat was not carried out.
Speaking after a consideration of the report on Wednesday, Deputy Senate President, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary, commended Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, for his cooperation with the committees and urged him to continue to cooperate with them during budget defence.
The Senate carried all the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning.
In the report, the Joint Committee recommended the adoption of $44.5 per barrel as the benchmark price for oil for the 2017 budget.
It also adopted N305 to a Dollar as exchange rate, but advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to initiate measures that would close the gap between the parallel market and the official exchange rate.
The Senate further adopted the projected N5.1 trillion for non-oil revenue in 2017 and N807.57 billion for Federal Government’s independent revenue for 2017 and adopted the government’s borrowing plans in 2017, which it said must be on project-tied basis.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka