Minister of Budget and National Planning Udoma Udo Udoma said yesterday that no date had been fixed for President Muhammadu Buhari to assent the 2016 budget.

According to him, talks on the grey areas in the budget are still on.

Udoma spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

He said: “On the 2016 Budget, we are still talking. On the expectation that we will soon have a budget, the monitoring and evaluation mechanism to make sure that the budget delivers what it promises. That mechanism was looked at by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and approved.”

To ensure that the 2017 budget is done on time, the minister said a timetable was approved for the 2017 budget by FEC.

The purpose, he said, is to get the 2017 budget on time to the National Assembly and ensure its passage this year.

He also said the Council noted the report of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, which in partnership with the National Planning Commission (NPC) organised an economic summit last year. The summit made various recommendations.

Source: The Nation