BUDGET 2017 WILL OPEN THE DOOR OF PROSPERITY TO HARD-WORKING NIGERIANS!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  
(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a godly Perspective).
A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 6. NO 177. 1st January, 2017.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

BUDGET 2017 WILL OPEN THE DOOR OF PROSPERITY TO HARD-WORKING NIGERIANS!   {2017 NEW YEAR EDITION}

The Utopian Nigeria of which the founding fathers and all patriotic citizens dreamt of, is gradually unfolding even at this austere period, through a divinely-charged Change Administration which, in just nineteen months, has brought smiles to the faces of dejected masses of peasant farmers, artisans, small and medium scale manufacturers/industrialists etc, in spite of the economic recession that was brought about by maladministration of the past! As the year 2016 gradually winds down, Nigerian farmers can now boast of millionaires among their rank and file through government-assisted modern aids of irrigation/fertilization/mechanization; which was not an established norm during the 56 years of independence from 1960. This window of opportunity was sequel to the altruistic stance of the new economic managers who determinedly blocked foreign importation of exotic foods and luxuries meant for the upper-class/ super-rich alone and encouraged made-in-Nigeria products  through large-scale farming of cereals and other staple foods which have now filled the markets at affordable prices. The adoption of the transparent TREASURY SINGLE ACCOUNT (TSA), system which afforded the Federal Government the required leverage to painstakingly monitor the PEOPLES COMMON WEALTH was another advantage introduced to block all loopholes of previous administrations for perpetrating corruption! The manufacturers were not sidelined because those who keyed into government's policy of substitution of imported goods for local materials and have championed the drive for Nigerians to patronized made in Nigeria brands of fashion costumes, fabrics of Ankra, Aso Oke, Adire, Batik, Jewelleries, Shoes, Hats, Caps, Red bricks, Cement, Roofing sheets, Made-In -Nigeria assembled Vehicles and Accessories, Electric Cables/Wirings, House/Car Paints, Industrial Machines, Nigerian-made Farm Tractors and Repair Tool Kits etc, also smiled to the banks with gratitude to God for the Change Agenda policy of turning the economy around to fruition! The President says that if the citizens CHANGED THEIR HABITS, THEY WOULD CHANGE NIGERIA.

The 2017 Budget, tagged, "Economic Recovery and Growth Strategy", closely followed the format of the 2016 Zero-based formula to ensure that all resources were meticulously and prudently managed for the public good.  President Muhammadu Buhari, in his presentation of the 2017 Budget to the joint session of the National Assembly (NASS), on 14th December, 2016, stated categorically that the method was a clear departure from the previous INCREMENTAL BUDGETING METHOD. The President further said that in 2016: Crude Oil benchmark price was pegged at US$38 per barrel; Oil Production at 2.2 million barrels per day and Foreign Exchange Rate at N197 naira to One US Dollar; and on the basis of those assumptions, aggregate revenue was projected at N3.86 trillion, while the expenditure outlay was estimated at N6.06trillion. He admitted that the deficit of N2.2 trillion, which was about 2.14% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was to be mainly financed through borrowing. It is no longer news to citizens of Nigeria that there was a deliberate plan by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to sabotage the economy in vengeance for their woeful defeat at the 2015 General Elections through surrogates who organized large-scale vandalization of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta Region in order to decimate daily oil revenue accruable to the Federal Government, and they partially succeeded but the strong-willed and determined administration of President Buhari, did not succumb to the blackmail, but prudently managed the dwindling oil resources, plugged all wastages in government expenses, unmasked ghost workers, ensured that all monies were paid into the TSA and was still able to save some monies from foreign exports to boost the almost empty foreign reserves!
It is in record that the Niger Delta Avengers terrorists and their criminal accomplices vandalized over 47 Oil Pipelines and installations between 2015/2016, and that Nigeria lost N2.3 trillion in both infrastructural/critical assets, but in spite of the large scale destruction, Federal Government was able to raise the Foreign Reserves Account to $25.4 billion, as at 16th December, 2016!  According to the President, the disruptions in crude oil production led to significant drop and shortfalls in projected revenue which in turn contributed to the economic slow down which negatively affected revenue collection by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and had reduced prorated projections by N2.17 trillion or 25%, as at 30th September, 2016 and similarly, N3.58 trillion, which was equivalent to 79% of the prorated full year expenditure estimate of N4.54 trillion which had been spent by the same date on both recurrent and capital expenditure! In spite of all the challenges, government was able to meet debt service obligations, personnel/overhead costs and capital expenditure, which though suffered FIVE months administrative/bureaucratic delay, got the highest release in recent history, a sum of N753.6 billion, by the end of October, 2016 which exceeded the capital expenditure for the year 2015! It is also note worthy that the TWO Change Administration Budgets are people-oriented, especially at this period of economic recession when emphasis is on diversification to the agricultural/solid minerals, industrial/manufacturing and entertainment /tourism sectors which would benefit immensely from the quick financial intervention that would produce good motorable roads/railways for farmers/business entrepreneurs, new terminals at four major airports, key power transmission projects, and fast-track the modernization of Lagos-Kano, Calabar-Lagos, Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Warri, Lagos-Abuja,Kaduna-Abuja railway projects, out of the numerous major projects, which would continue into the 2017 fiscal year. The Economic Recovery  and Growth Strategy in 2007 is designed to ease out recession and place the Nigerian masses who have been terribly traumatized to now taste the benefit of prosperity and financial growth through their ingenuity in all areas of creativity, talents and resilience which would continue to be supported with great incentives by government.

THE 2017 BUDGET ASSUMPTIONS, REVENUES, PROJECTIONS AND FISCAL DEFICIT OF N7.298 TRILLION.
Government's Budget assumption is based on a benchmark crude oil price of US$ 42.5 per barrel; oil production estimate of 2.2million barrels per day (bpd), and an average exchange rate of N305 naira to 1 US dollar, which translates to an aggregate revenue of N4.94trillion that should be available to fund the Federal budget, which is 28% higher than 2016 full year projections. Although, key capital spending provisions in the budget include those of Power, Works and Housing (N529bn), Transportation (N262bn), Special Intervention Programmes (N150bn), Defence (N140bn), Water Resources (N85bn), Industry Trade and Investment (N81bn), Interior (N63bn), Education (N50bn), Universal Basic Education Commission (N92bn), Health (N51bn), Federal Capital Territory (N37bn), Niger Delta Ministry (N33bn), and Niger Delta Development Commission (N61bn), AGRICULTURE remained government's priority to diversify the economy through an historic high allocation of N92 billion, which will complement the existing efforts of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), and a handful of Commercial Banks, to boost agricultural productivity through increased intervention funding of N600 billion, at a single digit interest rate under the Anchor Borrowers Programme to push the nation towards FOOD SUFFICIENCY in three years especially when the Nigeria-Morocco Fertilizer Production Joint Venture signed on 2nd December,2016, would have been on full steam to also create thousands of jobs and save the nation $US 200 million dollars in foreign exchange and over N60 billion in fertilizer subsidy! Since FISCAL DEFICIT is not a strange revamping strategy for reflating an economy in recession, government would finance the deficit of N2.36 trillion of the 2017 Budget (which is about 2.18% of the GDP), mainly by borrowing N1.067 trillion, (about 46% of the loan), from external sources while, N1.254 trillion, would be borrowed from domestic market Expenditure Estimates.

STATUTORY TRANSFER FAVOURS JUDICIARY WHICH IS THE LAST HOPE OF THE COMMON MAN!
It is worthy of note that the 2017 CAPITAL EXPENDITURE of N2.24 trillion, which includes capital in Statutory Transfers, was deliberately jacked up to favour the Judiciary which allocation was raised from N70 billion to N100 billion in order to enhance its independence and enable it perform its functions effectively. A significant portion of the RECURRENT EXPENDITURE was allocated for Payment of Salaries and Overheads of Institutions that provide critical public services as follows: (1) Ministry of Interior, N482.37 billion; (2) Ministry of Education (N398.01 billion); (3) Ministry of Defence (N325.87 billion); Ministry of Health (N252.87 billion); while N1.8 trillion was estimated for Government's Personnel Costs with greater emphasis on eliminating GHOST WORKERS through the perfected Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS). In addition, government has tasked the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance, to cut certain overhead costs by 20% in order to eliminate all non-essential costs so as to garner more resources to fund Capital Expenditure. From all of the above analysis, the 2017 People-Oriented and Socialist-inclined Budget, if properly supported, monitored and implemented, with the tacit support of the National Assembly, will break the jinx of poverty in Nigeria because the demands of the urban consumer would henceforth be focussed on local production of processed foods,  dairy products, tomato pastes, garment manufacturing, tailoring/haberdasheries, fashion designer outfits, cement production and petrochemicals through refining of our crude oil etc, by rural industrial entrepreneurs who would clamour that we consume what we produce and simultaneously eliminate joblessness and by extension YOUTH RESTIVENESS, permanently!  Life of the 2016 Budget Estimates (which is over 50% executed), will statutorily extend into May 2017, we believe that the determination with which the Buhari Administration is executing all major capital projects it should achieve over 80% by that period and that INHERITED LEGACY CONTRACTORS LIABILITIES which dated back to about 10 years and to which about N2 trillion naira had been earmarked, according to the President, would be meticulously verified so that only LEGITIMATE CLAIMS would be accommodated and that Federal Government's electricity bills DEBT would also be authenticated and paid to inject funds into the Power Sector for further improvement in service delivery to members of the public. President Buhari needs all citizens to support these lofty 2017 Budget proposals which will benefit the rural farmers, manufacturers, engineers, marketers, market women, petty traders, the Okada (commercial motorcycle) Riders, cabs,  buses, trucks, trailers and articulate vehicle drivers, health workers, educationists, information technologists, etc, (the real drivers of Nigeria's economic future), and collectively move this great nation out of a SELF-IMPOSED RECESSION into an ELDORADO (a land flowing with milk and honey), as it is written, "A HOUSE THAT IS BUILT ON THE ROCK WOULD SURELY STAND FIRM AND RIGID, EVEN IN THE EVENT OF HEAVY STORMS OR TSUNAMIES! The ball is now in the court of patriotic, dedicated, hard-working and diligent Nigerian citizens, who must now put all hands on deck, ignore all CLULESS ARM-CHAIR CRITICS of Nigeria's Change Administration and join in the crusade to get the ECONOMY out of the woods!
AS AT 29TH DECEMBER, 2016, THE INTERNATIONAL CRUDE OIL PRICE ROSE TO $US 56 DOLLARS PER BARREL - AN INDICATION THAT THE 2017 BUDGET - PREDICATED AT $US 42.5 DOLLARS WOULD GAIN $US 13.5 DOLLARS ON EACH BARREL TO OFF-SET THE PROPOSED FISCAL DEFICIT OF N2.36 TRILLION NAIRA AND BOOST CAPITAL EXPENDITURE; IF THE NIGER DELTA TERRORISTS WOULD SHEATH THEIR SWORDS AND DESIST FROM DESTROYING NATIONAL ASSETS THROUGH VANDALIZATION OF OIL PIPELINES! We wish all our Esteemed Readers and Followers a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.