Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday presented a record 7.298 trillion naira ($23.97 billion) budget for 2017 to lawmakers, which he said was an increase of 20.4 percent on last year’s spending plan.
He said the budget was based on an exchange rate of 305 naira to the dollar and a projected oil output of 2.2 million barrels per day at an assumed price of $42.5 dollars per barrel.
President Muhammadu Buhari assured Nigerians that his administration is determined to ensure a departure from dependence on imported goods to locally made products.
The president gave the assurance while presenting the 2017 Appropriation Bill before the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said he would ensure a new era where Nigerians consumed locally made products.
“For many years we depended on oil for foreign exchange revenues. In the days of high oil prices, we did not save, we squandered,” he said.
“We wasted our large foreign exchange reserves to import nearly everything we consume.
“Our food, our clothing, our manufacturing inputs, our fuel and much more. In the past 18 months when we experienced low oil prices, we saw our foreign exchange earnings cut by about 60 per cent.
“Also, our reserves eroded and our consumption declined as we could not import to meet our needs.
“We will CHANGE our habits and we will CHANGE Nigeria,’’ he said.
According to him, his administration will work on growing, processing local food as well as refine petroleum products locally.
Let's see how it goes Mr President, oh how we long to believe you.