ABUJA – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved a draft of the Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) brought to it by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The Director-General, Budget Office, Mr Bright Okogu, disclosed this to State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Okogu said that the MTFF, spanning 2015 to 2017 was contained in the revenue estimate and expenditure plan of the Federal Government within the period.
He said that the consideration and approval of the MTFF by FEC was geared toward the preparation of the 2015 budget.
Okogu added that in line with the president’s economic vision, the 2015 to 2017 framework focused on job creation and inclusive growth.
He said that the draft was a product of earlier consultations between the ministry and the National Assembly as well as other stakeholders in the budget process.
According to him, this is to forestall any misunderstanding between the executive and legislative arms of government that usually results in a logjam.
“Council considered the medium term framework spanning the period 2015 to 2017. You will all recall that this is the instrument through which all annual budgets are done on an ongoing basis.
“As you know, the strategy we normally adopt for this is that there is a very deep consultative process between the executive and the legislature and other stakeholders.
“To that extent the presentation today was the outcome of some of these earlier efforts already made in consulting both the national assembly in particular and some of the other stakeholders associated with the budget process,’’ he said.
The D-G said that the MTFF was prepared against the backdrop of global economic situations to determine the country’s prospects in terms of goods and services produced.
According to him, the framework centres on the non-oil sectors of the economy, especially the agriculture sector was best suited to generate growth and employment.
“We looked at the economic development in the OECD countries, western countries that typically purchase Nigeria’s crude oil and other non-oil products.
“This is necessary because it is how well they are doing that will determine how easy it is for them to import goods from us.
“As you know, the situation in the OECD countries is mixed. The U.S. economy is doing well and the recovery is there clearly, although it is a little bit tenuous.
“Sometimes you see some factors that seem to make it not so strong but it is robust and it is recovering which is good news. [eap_ad_1] “You then take a look at the European Union where the economic recovery is a little bit stop and go. Other countries are doing very well while some others are not doing well.
“All these countries import a lot of our own crude oil and a lot of non-oil products. We looked at all those in order to situate the Nigerian situation,’’ Okogu said.
He said that though Nigeria’s economic performance was robust and encouraging, a lot needed to be done to translate it into improvement in the living standard of the people.
“Indeed when you look at the rating agencies that come to Nigeria, and investors, they look at this country and say in spite of insurgency and a little bit of Ebola, this country is still doing very well in terms of real GDP growth.
“But you also know that Mr President has always emphasised that his interest is not only GDP growth but how that growth could impact majority of Nigerians.
“The theme for the 2015 to 2017 fiscal framework continues to be job creation, inclusive growth and how you can extend the prosperity embedded in this growth to as many Nigerians as possible,’’ the DG said. (NAN)
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