Nigeria’s Senate has proposed the adoption of a budget calendar that will begin with the submission of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) by the second week in July and end with the President signing the Appropriation Bill into law by the third week of December annually.
The new measure was contained in a report submitted to the Senate President Bukola Saraki, on Monday by the Senator Ali Ndume-led Technical Committee on Reforming the Budget Process in Nigeria.
The strategies, which also include the provision of laws on development plans by the Federal Government, are aimed at easy and timely preparation of the budget and its efficient implementation.
The measures propose a budget calendar to ensure that the President assents to the appropriations law by the third week of December while the MTEF is submitted in the second week of July as the first step in the budget process.
The Senate would also discuss at plenary, other reports such as amendments of the relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution and extant laws as well as enactment of new laws to improve the country’s budgetary process and align it to international best practices.
Other key recommendations in the report submitted on Thursday, November 3 are the proposed provision of a legal backing for national development plans and enactment of organic budget law to fix a realistic budget calendar.
