THE Senate on Wednesday passed the Medium Term Expenditure Framework‎/Fiscal Strategy Paper three months after submission to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari had in September submitted MTEF/FSP for consideration to the National Assembly.

However, the consideration was delayed due what lawmakers described as “empty” MTEF.

At the consideration of the report‎ on Wednesday, the Senate carried all the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning.

In the report, the Joint Committee recommended the adoption of $44.5 per barrel as the benchmark price for oil for the the 2017 budget.

The Senate adopted N305 to a dollar as exchange rate, but advised the Central Bank of Nigeria to initiate measures that would close the gap between the parallel market and the official exchange rate.

The Senate also adopted the projected N5.1 trillion for non-oil revenue in 2017 and N807.57 billion for Federal Government’s independent revenue for 2017.

The Senate adopted the Federal Government’s borrowing plans in 2017 but insisted that the borrowing should be on project-tied basis.

In his remarks after the passage of the MTEF, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, applauded the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma,‎ for his cooperation with the committees and urged him to continue to cooperate with them during budget defence.

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