Senate has passed the federal government’s medium-term expenditure framework for 2024-2026 thus setting out the government’s fiscal plan for the next three years. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives had passed the framework earlier on Tuesday. The framework, a key document in the Nigerian budget process, ensures that government spending aligns with its economic and social goals. It is a three-year rolling plan that sets out the government’s spending priorities and how it will fund them.
The passage of the framework by Nigeria’s two arms of parliament paves the way for President Bola Tinubu to send the country’s 2024 budget proposal of N26 trillion to parliament for approval. The document, which was agreed by Tinubu’s cabinet before going to lawmakers for approval, expects the Naira currency to trade around N700 per dollar next year before firming slightly in 2025 and 2026.
The House of Representative had passed the medium-term expenditure framework for 2024-2026 with $73.66 per barrel crude oil benchmark in 2024, $73.76 in 2025 and $69.90 in 2026. It also based the estimate on an exchange rate of N700 per dollar 2024, N665.61 in 2025 and N669.79 in 2026. The Reps also based the framework estimate on 1.78 million crude oil production per day in 2024, 1.8 million in 2025 and 1.81 million per day in 2026 . The Reps used these sets of assumptions that will be used to prepare the country’s budget over the next three years.
