N'Assembly to Breakdown 2016 Budget Publicly, Says Senate President

N'Assembly to Breakdown 2016 Budget Publicly, Says Senate President

To affirm its commitment to transparency and openness, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the weekend has announced that the National Assembly would announce the breakdown of its 2016 budget for the first time in a matter of days.

The Senate President, according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Mohammed Isa, made this disclosure while interacting with a team of editors from the London-based magazine, "The Economist," in Abuja.‎

He said Nigerians would in the next few weeks be availed of the details of the budget which he said would mark a departure from the tradition of having a one-line-item budget whose expenditure was shrouded in secrecy since 1999.

"For the first time we promised Nigerians to give out our budget breakdown. The committee will make its report available by next week. We are resolved to break the tradition of one line item," he said.

According to the statement, despite the differences in political parties' affiliation as well as leadership tussle among senators, Saraki said national interest as well as the desire of each senator to fulfil the promises he made to Nigerians would prevail.

On the  economy, he said the Senate had embarked on a series of legislative interventions to create conducive environment for the private sector, saying "it is only when the  private sector thrives that the issue of unemployment will be addressed and the nation's GDP will increase."

He added: "Few days ago, we received a report on the laws that need to be amended in order of priority importance to ease doing business and overall private sector participation in the stimulation of Nigeria's economy. We will soon commence the implementation of the recommendations in the report in addition to pushing for the amendment of the Procurement Act to stimulate and protect our local industries," he assured.

He blamed lack of firmness and consistency in policy implementation by the past administrations as the main obstacle to the growth of the private sector.

"If people have confidence that these policies have come to stay, nothing will stop them from coming to invest in the country," he added.

He allayed the fears that the low prices of oil would have negative impact on the implementation of 2016 budget, saying "what we need to do is to block leakages and show more transparency, adding: "If we can block leakages, stop the wastages and institute a culture of transparency in governance, the revenue in-flow will not be substantially affected. Without these, even if oil is sold at more than a $100 per barrel, we will continue to witness a decline in revenue in-flow as we witnessed in the past."