Abuja: Nigeria`s acting President Goodluck Jonathan signed a budget of USD 4.6 trillion on Thursday for the current fiscal, as the oil-producing nation gears to boost its economic recovery troubled by excess mismanagement and corruption.
"The budget will accelerate Nigeria`s economic recovery through targeted fiscal interventions aimed at stimulating the economy, sustaining private sector growth and enhancing the pace of national development," Jonathan told reporters in Abuja, the nation`s capital, as he signed the budget for the year 2010.
Jonathan who exercises executive powers in the West African country following the poor health of President Umaru Yar`Adua had promised to tackle issues like poor power supply and restiveness in the Niger Delta region where militants are fighting for control of oil resources.
The new budget has an increment of 13.3 percent from 4.079 trillion presented by Yar`Adua last November. It was predicated on government’s economic outlook for the fiscal year including oil production capacity of 2.35 million barrels per day, oil price benchmark of USD 67 per barrel and an average exchange rate of 150 Naira to the US dollar.
Oil production in Nigeria lowered due to militants’ action and as a result of assaults on pipelines and oil companies, Nigeria was forced to reduce its oil output.
Angola, the next in oil production on the African continent, overtook it in production.
Yar’Adua had granted amnesty to the militants followed by promises of rehabilitation which Jonathan has said he will pursue.
This calmed the rebels though a faction called Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) still claims not to be part of the amnesty.
Jonathan had recently appointed new ministers with whom he hopes to revive the economy of the country in less than 13 months when he would hand over to a new elected government.
During the signing, he said the office of the ministry of special duties would be strengthened and given the power to monitor the implementation of the budgets.
PTI
