Federal Government agencies in the Presidency on Saturday in Abuja held consultations on the 2021 budget toward meeting the September deadline for the submission of the document to the National Assembly.
Mr Attah Esa, Deputy Director (Information), State House, who confirmed this in a statement on Sunday, said the Permanent Secretary, State House, Mr Tijjani Umar, led the 2021 budget bilateral meeting.
He said the virtual meeting was between government agencies under the Presidency and officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
He quoted Umar as saying that the preparation of the 2021 budget estimates takes into consideration the policies and strategies contained in the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), which is the Federal Government pre-budget statement.
Umar, the statement said, also explained that in line with the directive issued by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the budget was being prepared using the Zero-Based Budget (ZBB) approach.
“This approach is in compliance with the government’s policy thrust as articulated in the MTEF/FSP and Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP),” Umar added.
While citing a Sept.1, 2020 circular issued by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed, Umar said that MDAs had been directed to work assiduously to conclude the budget bilateral meetings as scheduled.
He said that the measure was to enable them to get the 2021 budget ready for transmission to the National Assembly this month.
The latest budget circular issued by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning put the expenditure ceiling of the 2021 pre-bilateral proposal for the Presidency at N10 billion.
The revised 2020 budget passed by the National Assembly was N15.3 billion
The meeting was attended by Chief Executives and key budget, finance and accounts staff of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
The Chief Executives of National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS); Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU); National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were also in attendance.
