The federal government yesterday said that the proposed 2021 budget as submitted to the National Assembly would not be recalled amid calls to tinker with the appropriation bill as the country plunges into another recession.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this to State House correspondents after the virtual federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa.
According to her, government had devised plans and strategies, other than tinkering with the appropriation bill, to deal with the recession.
She said, “On the 2021 Budget, we are not planning to retrieve the budget or to reverse the budget beyond the work of appropriation that the National Assembly is currently doing in consultation with us.”
Ahmed further explained that the quarter three trend, in spite of the recession, was better than the projections of the IMF and showed that
the recession would be short-lived, even as she attributed the positive trend of the nation’s economy to faithful implementation of the Economic Sustainability Plans (ESP).
Accordingly, she expressed optimism that the ESP will help the country out of the recession sooner than later.
The minister noted: “The steps that were taken was a vigorous implementation of the Economic Sustainability Plan. You will recall that the ESP was designed to be a 12 months plan, to act as a bridge between the ERGP and its successor plan, but also it was designed specifically to help us quickly exit recession, which we had projected was going to happen.
“So, the ESP implementation is really on course, it’s focused and also the implementation of the 2020 Budget is really on course and is much focused. We have been able to release a large volume of capital funding into ministries, departments and agencies, enabling a lot of public works going on simultaneously all over the country.
“So how we will maintain this is to make sure we continue to implement the ESP as it is planned. It will help us exit recession, it will help us reset back on the path of growth and on a road that is sustainable”.
