Nigeria Lawmakers Send 2018 Spending Plan to President to Sign

(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s national assembly sent the 2018 budget proposal to President Muhammadu Buhari a little over a week after lawmakers approved the country’s biggest yet spending plan of 9.1 trillion naira ($25 billion).

“The signed copy of the 2018 appropriations bill is now with President Muhammadu Buhari,” Olu Onemola, an aide to Senate President Bukola Saraki, said Friday by text message.

The Senate voted on May 17 to increase spending plans by more than a fifth from the 2017 budget to help boost economic growth less than a year before general elections.

The bill comes six months after being presented to lawmakers by Buhari and is 5.8 percent more than the 8.6 trillion-naira budget proposed in November. The legislators also increased the oil-benchmark price for the budget to $51 per barrel from $45 proposed by Buhari, on the assumption of crude output of 2.3 million barrels daily and an exchange rate of 305 naira per dollar.

Buhari will have to sign his approval for the budget to become law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Solape Renner in Lagos at srenner4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, Sophie Mongalvy, Hari Govind

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.