Delay passage of 2018 budget unhealthy for economy — Expert

An Economist, Boniface Okezie, says that delay in passage of the 2018 budget proposal is unhealthy for the economy, especially presently that the country just exited recession.
Okezie, the President Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Thursday.
He spoke against the backdrop of the proposed N8.6 trillion for the 2018 budget, which represents an increase of 16 per cent from the 2017 budget estimate.
If passed, the budget is expected to result in a deficit of N2.005 trillion, amounting to 1.77 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
To finance the deficit, the Nigerian government is expected to borrow an estimated N1.699 trillion.
Okezie said that delayed passage of the budget by the National Assembly would slow down the implementation process, particularly now that the general elections were getting close.
He said: “Less than a year from now, it will be a general election period and the budget before the year has not been appropriated by the authorities.
“It will be inadequate for the budget to be now appropriated in late April when it will be a time of heavy rainfall that infrastructure will be quite challenging to fix.’’
He noted that over the years, our political leaders seemed not to be learning from past mistakes.
He said: “Budget delay which is fast becoming a common practice is one of the factors responsible for failed expectations from the electorate, economic instability regardless of great potential in the nation’s economy.’’
He opined that government should summit 2019 budget earlier than this year’s budget, and lobby the National Assembly more in order to avoid the mistakes of the past.