BREAKING: Tinubu arrives N’Assembly to present 2025 budget

President Bola Tinubu has arrived at the National Assembly complex for the 2025 budget presentation.

Tinubu got to the N’Assembly at exactly 12:10 pm on Wednesday amid heavy security.

On Monday, the Federal Executive Council approved the 2025 budget proposal.

This follows the Senate’s endorsement of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework 2025 – 2027 on November 22.

Tinubu will present the proposed N47.96tn budget to the joint session of the National Assembly.

The budget presentation is expected to align with the fiscal strategies outlined in these documents.

The revised schedule underscores the importance of ensuring all necessary refinements are made to the budget before formally presenting it to the legislature.

The budget size remains N47.96tn as the MTEF proposed, with new borrowings of N9.22tn, the Minister of the Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, told journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

The council approved the MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper on November 14, 2024.

The MTEF, a critical tool the FG uses to outline its fiscal strategy over three years, establishes macroeconomic assumptions and targets that guide national budgeting.

It also includes projections of key economic variables such as oil prices, exchange rates, inflation and growth rates.

For the 2025-2027 period, the MTEF sets out parameters, including an oil price benchmark of $75 per barrel, an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day, an exchange rate of N1,400 to the US dollar, and a GDP growth rate of 4.6 per cent.

Its projected aggregate expenditure for 2025 is N47.96tn, with planned borrowing of N13.8tn, equating to 3.87 per cent of GDP.

On Monday, Bagudu announced, “Today, the Federal Executive Council approved the budget proposals 2025 with amendments which Mr President directed following a presentation to the Federal Executive Council led by the Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu.

“The 2025 framework is based on an oil price benchmark of $75 per barrel. Oil production of 2.06 million barrels per day; exchange rate of N1,400 (to the dollar).

“All these are already included in the medium-term expenditure framework we have presented here, which has also been approved by the National Assembly.”