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Ceazerj
FG Justifies Fuel Price Comparison With Saudi Arabia, Others
The Federal Government says the comparison made by President Muhammadu Buhari on fuel prices between Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in his 2020 Independence Day national broadcast is justified.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the submission when he featured on a Radio Nigeria current affairs programme, “Radio Link’’ on Saturday in Abuja.
President Buhari said in his Independence Day broadcast that: “we sell petrol at N161 per litre when same is sold at N168 per litre in Saudi Arabia; N211 per litre in Egypt; N362 per litre in Ghana; N362 per litre in Chad, and N346 per litre in Niger Republic.
“It does not make sense for petrol to be cheaper in Nigeria than Saudi Arabia,’’
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Ceazerj
More Loans As Buhari Presents N13.08tr Budget
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, presented 2021 appropriation bill to the joint session of the National Assembly.The President said the N13.08 trillion proposal, tagged ‘Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience’, would “accelerate our economic recovery process, promote social inclusion and strengthen the resilience of the economy.â€He explained that N5.20 trillion, an equivalent of 40 per cent of the proposed expenditure, would be funded by new borrowings, privatisation proceeds and drawdowns on multilateral/bilateral loans secured for specific projects and programmes.“The deficit will be financed mainly by new borrowings totalling N4.28 trillion, N205.15 billion from privatisation proceeds and N709.69 billion in drawdowns on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific projects and programme,†he said.The borrowing will add to the existing N31.08 trillion owed by federal and state governments.Buhari admitted that the economy was facing serious challenges and would have fallen into recession at the end of the second quarter.“The Nigerian economy is currently facing serious challenges, with the macroeconomic environment being significantly disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth declined by 6.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. This ended the three-year trend of positive, but modest, real GDP growth recorded since the second quarter of 2017.“The GDP growth is projected to be negative in the third quarter of this year. As such, our economy may lapse into the second recession in four years, with significant adverse consequences. However, we are working assiduously to ensure rapid recovery in 2021,†he said.The President said the appropriation was in line with his submission that capital expenditure in 2021 would remain focused on completing many ongoing projects, rather than commencing new ones.
