The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo-Udoma, yesterday said that the 2016 budget is achievable, in spite of the crashing oil price.
Udoma, according to the Director of Information in the Ministry, Mr Charles Dafe, said he gave the assurance when a delegation from the African Development Bank (ADB) visited the ministry.
The price of oil in the international market has gone below the $38 per barrel benchmark proposed by the Nigerian government, sparking fears the 2016 budget might not be realizable.
However, the Minister was quoted as saying: “Our budget is achievable; we have ongoing reforms targeted at diversifying our revenue base away from single oil commodity economy.
“Our Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, is assiduously applying innovative financing in the oil sector to address any likely revenue gap from our projected oil revenue.
“Plugging leakages through zero tolerance to corruption, application of sound public financial management and improved revenue collection system are reforms targeted to achieve the budget”.
