Drop in oil prices puts pressure on Nigeria’s reserve –CBN
Federal Government yesterday said the balance in the account of the loot recovered from the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha stood at $26.389m and £19.033m as at last month.
This was disclosed by Benue State Governor, Sam Ortom, while briefing State House correspondents after the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. “We were also briefed on update on Abacha loot in council.
The Accountant General of the Federation reported that the dollar account as at November 2015 ending has a balance of $26,389m, while the pound sterling has a balance of £19, 033m. That is where we are today,” he said.
Also speaking, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma said his ministry made presentation to the council on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and the Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP.
According to him, the reports highlighted government’s fiscal policy strategy and direction as well as revenue and expenditure projections for the next three years.
“We briefed Council about our view in terms of the global outlook and micro-economic frame work and the key assumptions underlining our projections,” Udoma said.
He explained that the presentation urged states to adopt MTEF and FSP, which has now been approved by the National Assembly. According to him, the ministry also urged states to adopt the system as a basis for developing their annual budgets.
He said: “We also emphasised the need for states to be guided by the assumptions of the MTEF and also the need for states to be conservative in their expenditure and their expenditure projections for 2016-2018, in view of the declining oil price.
“We also urged states to look towards enhancing their IGR and blocking financial leakages in the system and generally emphasised the need in planning for the economy for the federal and state government to work very closely with government because we are dealing with one economy.”
Taraba State governor, Darius Ishaku, in his own submission, said the Council was briefed on the Excess Crude Account, ECA. He disclosed that the Ministry of Finance was also working on the details of government agencies collecting revenue in dollars and remitting in naira, saying the details would be passed to the Council with a comprehensive report on the agencies that are involved which would later be made known to the public.
Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal said the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, gave an update on monetary policy measures on foreign exchange strategy and challenges being faced by many countries as a result of the global economy recession. Tambuwal said the CBN governor also reported that the drop in oil prices has caused serious pressure on Nigeria’s reserve which currently stands at $29bn.
According to him, the Council was also briefed on monetary policy, including the deduction of cash reserve ratio from 25 per cent to 20 per cent and the measure on forex market and Bank Verification Number, BVN, considering the introduction of debit card for travelers instead of cash exchange demands to reduce cash for illicit businesses and also looking at option to diversify the economy away from oil.
National Mirror.
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