President Muhammadu Buhari has
written the National Assembly, stating his intention to present the 2016
Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the Senate and House of
Representatives.
According to the letter read by
the senate president, Bukola Saraki, Wednesday, Mr. Buhari will address the
lawmakers on Tuesday, at 10 AM.
The session will be the first
time Mr. Buhari would address a joint session of the National Assembly since
coming to power in May.
The precursor to the budget,
Medium Term Expenditure Framework, was forwarded to National Assembly last
week.
In the MTEF, the Federal
Government proposed $38 per barrel as the benchmark for crude oil.
In a related development, on
Monday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said the
nation’s 2016 oil production target is 2.4 million barrels.
Mr. Kachikwu disclosed this while
defending the petroleum ministry’s projections for 2016 before the Joint
Senate/House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Appropriation and
Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions.
He also hinted at the
government’s plan to revert to the old pump price of N97 per litre of premium
motor spirit in gradual process of total subsidy removal.
Mr. Kachikwu also expressed
confidence that the price of crude oil would increase as from early January to
“around $50 per barrel in spite of OPEC projections”, adding that it might also
hit $70 per barrel in 2017.
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