Osinbajo signs 2017 budget into law

Nigeria’s acting president, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has signed the 2017 budget into law,to pull Africa’s biggest economy out of recession.

Lawmakers passed the record 7.44 trillion-naira ($23.6 billion) budget plan in May, which was bigger than the 7.298 trillion-naira draft spending plan submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari in December.

Nigeria has been in recession since last year, largely due to low oil prices and militant attacks on the country’s Niger Delta energy facilities. Oil sales usually bring in two-thirds of the government’s revenue.

Osinbajo is standing in for President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been on medical leave in Britain since May 7, his second prolonged absence this year. Buhari’s medical condition is unclear. “This budget is a budget of economic recovery and growth. It is designed to bring Nigeria out of recession,” Osinbajo said after the signing.

He said the economy was gradually recovering and that the budget will be implemented based on the country’s recovery plans. Nigeria’s economy contracted for the fifth consecutive time in the first quarter.

Before the signing, there had been speculation that Buhari would return home over the weekend, casting some doubt on whether Osinbajo would be able to sign the budget. Buhari on Monday issued a statement saying it was in the interest of the country for his deputy to sign the budget.

The acting president said the budget signing was delayed by changes in the proposal sent to parliament. “We resolved some while some are still to be resolved,” he said at the signing.

Last year’s budget, passed in May 2016, was delayed for months by disagreements between lawmakers and the presidency over spending plans that cut the supply of government money and deepened the economic crisis.

Buhari said in his statement, signed by his spokesman Garba Shehu, that the 2018 budget proposal will be submitted by October and parliament will conclude the process by December so the country can return to a normal budget cycle from next year.