GBOLABO AFUWAPE
Drama unfolded today at the National Assembly, Abuja, as lawmakers were almost exchanging punches during the early part of the joint sitting of the lawmakers as President Mohammadu Buhari arrived to present the 2019 budget.
Immediately afterwards, there were jeers from a cross section of the lawmakers who chanted various inciting words while President Buhari was on sit.
Speaker of the House of Representatives had to interfere to calm down the lawmakers so that the presentation could begin.
The President who advised the lawmakers to comport themselves during the day’s sitting as they are been watched by everyone all over the world, had these as the highpoints of the 2019 budget which was valued at N8.83 trillion with a total revenue projected at N6.97 trillion, oil revenue was projected at N3.73 trillion, non-oil revenue was pegged at N1.39 trillion and others pegged at N1.85 trillion; the oil price in the bill is benchmarked at $60 per barrel. The exchange rate is N305/$1, and oil production for 2019 is projected at 2.3 million litres per day.
As touching the new minimum wage, the president said a new technical committee will be set up to determine funding for the minimum wage, he said the Federal government in 2019 will avoid borrowing to fund it and assess impact on inflation. With this, it looks likely that job losses looms.
The president said that N15bn was provided to recapitalise Bank of Industry (BOI) and Bank of Agriculture (BOA) in 2019 budget while Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) will get N10bn to subsidise interest rates on credit to SMEs.
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