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June 25 - July 1, 2018
BUSINESS
FCT REPORT
Nigeria to go back on Africa’s free trade pact Stories by Sarah NEGEDU
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igeria may be reneging on its earlier decision to back out of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, agreement, as the federal government concludes consultations on the matter. The country had declined assent to the arrangement at the last extraordinary meeting of the African Union held in Kigali, capital of Rwanda. Recall that the Federal Government had initially agreed to sign the pact but later backed out, arguing that it needed time for consultations back home before endorsing it. President Buhari warned that Nigeria will not assent to any agreement that will undermine local manufacturers or turn Nigeria to a dumping site. Some stakeholders had criticized President Buhari for pulling out of the CFTA which the AU is confident will create a bloc with cumulative GDP of $2.5trillion. After its March 2018 decision in Kigali, the Nigeria Office for Trade Negotiations, NOTN, headed by Amb. Chiedu Osakwe held s t a k e h o l d e r s ’ sensitization and consultations across the country’s six geopolitical zones. Feelers from the consultations indicate support for the AfCFTA, which many believe will lead to competition among manufacturers and speed up infrastructure development in the country. The Communications Assistant to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Emenike Chibuzor, hinted that the Presidential Committee on AfCFTA met to discuss findings from the consultations. This was the second time the committee would meet to discuss the pact, an indication
that Nigeria is still interested in it. The presidential committee was charged with the responsibility of widening consultations on the framework establishing free trade pact in Africa. The latest meeting was co-chaired
by the trade minister, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, and his Foreign Affairs counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama. Nigeria’s Chief Negotiator, Amb. Chiedu Osakwe, reported the feedback from the stakeholders’
sensitization and consultations across the country with sectorspecific groups, labour, think tanks and civil society. Speaking at the event, minister Enelamah commended the efforts of NOTN and stated that
the committee will continue to consult. A technical drafting group, led by Amb. Osakwe was mandated by Enelamah and Foreign Affairs minister, Onyeama to immediately finalize the draft report.
President Muhammadu Buhari, surrounded by Legislators and other government officials, Signs the 2018 Budget at the State House in Abuja last week. PHOTO: State House/Sunday Aghaeze
8.7m children captured in FG’s school feeding programme
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he Federal Government has said over 8.7 million school children currently benefit from its Home Grown School Feeding Programme in parts of the country where it is being implemented. Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed disclosed this while fielding questions from some stakeholders, on the status of the programme at the Public Presentation of the 2018 Approved Budget of Consolidation, on Thursday in Abuja. Home Grown School Feeding Programme is one of the components of the Social Intervention Programme of the Federal Government. While acknowledging that the Social Investment programme had a lot of
teething problems when the implementation commenced in 2016 she said, “A lot of processes has gone into the implementation of the programme. When we started in 2016, it was designed to reach out to five million school children. “We have reached 8.7 million children now. We have gone above the target we set and the programme is being implemented in many states.” The Federal Government has allocated another N500billion for Social Intervention Programme in the 2018 budget after the same amount was allocated in 2016 and 2017. The programme includes Home Grown School Feeding, Government E c o n o m i c
Empowerment, NigeriaPower Job Creation and Conditional Cash Transfers. Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udo Udoma, said that the federal government had earmarked N11.3billion for the Sustainable Development Goals in the 2018 budget. He said government had also budgeted N36.4billion for the implementation of other SDGs projects. In addition, he said that government had earmarked some funds to implement Special Economic Zone Projects. “The sum of N44.2 billion was set aside for ongoing and planned Special Economic Zone Projects across the geopolitical zones, to drive manufacturing/exports. Under the Export Expansion Grant , 13.28
billion was earmarked in form of tax credit to support export via the Export Expansion Grant. “For Recapitalisation of the Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture, we earmarked N15 billion to support these development finance institutions for the support of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises,” he said. The N9.12 trillion 2018 Budget was designed to Consolidate on the achievements of the 2016 Budget of Change and the 2017 Budget of Recovery and Growth. Government hopes that the budget will also advance the delivery of the goals of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017–2020. President Buhari last week, assented the 2018 budget following the six months delay by the National Assembly.
Power ministry receives 33% capital budget in 2017
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ver 33percent of total funds released for capital projects in the 2017 fiscal year was expended on projects under the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, the federal government has disclosed. According to the ministry of finance, the sector received the highest amount of N523.01billion from the N1.580trillion released for capital projects to all its Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The sector also received the highest release in the 2016 capital budget of N307.41billion, r e p r e s e n t i n g 25.21percent of the entire capital budget for the year. The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, who gave a breakdown of the capital cost for the year, noted that the N1.58trillion total capital releases for 2017 were remarkably higher than the N1.219trn released for 2016 by N360.799billion. She said defence received the second highest capital release of N197.59billion, which was 12.50percent of the total N1.58trillion released for 2017. This was N120.06billion higher than the N77.53billion that the sector got from the 2016 budget. Agriculture and Water Resources got N149.485billion (9.46 percent) in 2017. The sector had received N143.121billion which was 11.74percent of the capital cost released in 2016. Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n followed with total capital receipt of N126.25billion, which was 7.99 pe cent of the 2017 capital budget as against the N171.9billion that the sector got in 2016. Meanwhile health and education together received a total of N98.19billion,