As Nigerians all over prepare for the festive period, the Federal Government has dropped another bomb shell, alerting Nigerians to prepare for what it termed as more austere conditions in view of the strict economic policies been put in place by the Buhari led administration.
These were disclosed Monday when the Ministers for Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and State for Petroleum Resource; Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu; Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Babatunde Fowler appeared before the joint committee s of the National Assembly on Finance to defend the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF & FSP documents presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking earlier, Minister for Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma who noted that it was important that substantial reductions were made on the spending pattern if the expected change must come in, said, ” In preparing the MTEF, we seek a dramatic shift from spending on recurrent to spending on capital aspect of the budget. It is going to be tighter for everybody. All non essential expenditure would be cut out. We will reduce the overheads by 7 per cent. We are beginning a journey of change and Change has to start with the clarity of purpose of where we are going
The Federal government has also planned to in that 2016 budget, reduce the Personnel cost form N1.8 trillion to N100 billion as part of moves to reduce expenditure and save cost.
The news has left Nigerians asking themselves is this the kind of change we voted for? while some are optimistic that challenging times need firm and robust response.
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