It said it avoided basing the foreign exchange benchmark in the 2024 budget on a spot rate, to avoid eventualities and uncertainties.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, who spoke with State House correspondents explained that the FG had earlier chosen the projected exchange rate of N750 to the dollar in the 2024 budget which the National Assembly raised to N800 to the dollar,

Bagudu said, “For budgeting purposes, you don’t use the spot rate of anything. Oil prices can go to 120 today, maybe there is a shortage, or maybe there is a collision between two ships that will block a channel.

“It would be foolish to use that as a reference price, I should take a period maybe six months to one year and say let me observe this average behaviour, so you don’t use spot prices. So even with the exchange rate, it is like that.”

He explained further, “Much as we are hoping that it would soon come below, but at the time you are doing the budget, you will take a view on average performance. And that’s what we took.

“We took an average performance of N750 on the executive side and we proposed it to the National Assembly.”

The minister also said that Tinubu regarded the National Assembly’s decision to raise the rate further considering his respect for institutions and democracy.

“So, he respected democracy that even though it was higher than what he submitted, but the institution that says so has the authority to say so and even at the time they say 100 because it’s not an official rate it’s tidal because, with the deregulated market, you no longer have an official rate, it is much lower than even the way the markets are bidding,” the minister said.

The minister noted that the FG is positive that its current measures would soon yield a significant increase in the supply of foreign exchange in the economy.

Bagudu also spoke on the level of borrowing to fund the deficit in the 2024 budget, saying there is a significant difference between 2024 borrowing compared to last year’s.

“In 2023, the budget anticipated a borrowing of close to N14tn. This year’s budget is N9.1 trillion. So we think that is significant.

“Because it’s 2023 took us to about 6.11 per cent of our GDP as borrowing. This one is  3.8 per cent. So the quantum had decreased,” Bagudu added.

The former Kebbi State Governor said the FG will operate strictly within the dictates of fiscal responsibility law in the new year, which provides for the Central Bank of Nigeria to lend to the government through its Ways and Means window, only 5 per cent of the total budget.

He explained, “We will not go outside the law and borrow from ways and means, what is outside the law. So the fiscal responsibility law says, that every year, the central bank can lend the government up to 5 per cent of its budget for the year.

“So if you go out of that, you’re going outside the lawful limit, and that’s what the minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy was very clear we are not going to do. We are not going to resort to borrowing outside the law.

“And secondly, as much as possible, we will even borrow away from the central bank because sometimes it’s even cheaper to borrow. So, those are the two elements. So the quantum has decreased, then we will go by the book.”

The Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, and governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, said this to State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja

Vice-Chairman of the National Food Security Council and the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu made the announcement while briefing State House reporters in Abuja after the council met with the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari on Tuesday, September 22.

Bagudu said “You are a living witness to the trend in the country. Before the program, fertilizer was sold for between N8,000 to N12,000 in 2016 and when we started the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, it was brought down to N5,500 that is the NPK and this has been the trend for three years and now the president decided to reduce it by another N500. So, you can sell fertilizer at N5000 to the farmers and the factory price at N4,500. This has been going on, but we have a problem with one of our key raw materials, urea that is being supplied by Indorama out of Port Harcourt”

In a meeting conducted via teleconference and chaired by the forum’s Chairman, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on Monday April 13, the state governors said having a lockdown in the region is not possible as most of the residents are farmers who need to go to their farms.

A statement released by the Plateau state governor’s Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr Macham Makut, said the governors in the meeting expressed disappointment that the region has few testing centers for the Coronavirus.

The statement in part reads “They (northern governors) agreed that at the moment, each state would adopt the measure suitable to its setting because total lockdown of the region will come at a very high cost since most of its citizens are farmers who need to go to farms since the rains have started. Another issue discussed by the northern governors was the issue of palliatives from the Federal Government where they regretted that so far, no state in the region had received a dime as special allocation despite the fact that some of them have recorded cases while others are making frantic efforts to prevent any outbreak, as well as prepare against any eventuality. This they observed has eaten deep into the pockets of the states as they have spent a lot of money already and may not be able to sustain this for a long time. Since prevention is better than cure, they canvassed that the Federal Government grant them some special funds just as it has done to other states. The northern governors lamented that the region has no testing centre, which is very disturbing. They resolved to again liaise with the Federal Government to ensure that each state at least gets one testing centre while highly populated ones get two. The governors also discussed the economic impact of COVID-19 on the region and decided that they needed to take a holistic look at the economic prospects of the region with a view to repositioning it for less reliance on federal allocation and to prepare for the future by diversifying to areas of comparative advantage such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and human capital development. They consequently set up a seven-man committee chaired by the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, to fashion out the way forward. Other members are the governors of Kaduna, Sokoto, Kwara, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Gombe and Nasarawa states.”