Invest Data Consulting Ltd

Based on the timely passage and assent to Nigeria’s 2020 budget, which returns Nigeria to the January- December cycle, among others, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, says the new year will witness robust peace and economic growth for the good of its citizenry. In a New Year message, Lawan while congratulating all on witnessing the end of 2019 and the beginning of the year 2020, hailed the resilience of Nigerians in their commitment to the unity and prosperity of the country and support for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. “I have no doubt in my mind that with the timely passage of the budget, restoration of the January to December financial year and other amendments recently made to our laws by the ninth National Assembly, the economy will enjoy significant growth in the new year,” Lawan said. He assured Nigerians that the National Assembly will continue to do its best to make things better by enacting people-oriented legislations. The National Assembly, he a...

Like a dream come true, Nigeria achieved the National Assembly’s plan for a January-December budget cycle, with President Muhammadu Buhari signing the 2020 Appropriation Bill passed into law for the first time since the return of the country to democracy in 1999. Senate President Ahmed Lawan first mooted the idea of returning the nation to the January-December cycle soon after he was elected on July 31, 2019. Although a budget of N10.33tr was laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on October, N10.59tr was signed into law on Tuesday by President Buhari. This was however lower than the N10.729tr recommended by the Senate during the October 3, 2019 passage of Nigeria’s 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP). The budget, however, seems to have ignored criticisms that the spending plan represents an attempt by the federal government to build castles in the air, in the words of analysts at the investment banking group- Afrinv...