COVID-19: Federal Government Might Review 2020 Budget,Finance Minister Says

The deadly COVID-19 outbreak has started taken a negative impact on the 2020 national budget of N10.95 trillion.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who revealed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting said that the federal government might be forced to review the approved 2020 budget.

She explained that already, the international oil price had dropped, but added that oil production has increased between two million barrels and 2.1 million barrels per day.

She said: “We are concerned because it does have an impact on revenue and at the current crude oil price of 53 percent is below the budget benchmark.  “What we are doing is that we are studying the situation and when the budget was passed, we committed to do a midterm review. We will do the midterm review and if the revenue is so significantly affected, we will have to do some revisions in the budget by way of budget adjustment.

“I will want to inform that the crude production is now at 2 million barrels per day and in some days it has moved up to 2.1 million barrels per day so that in itself will be a cushion.

Meanwhile, apart from the devastating impact of the coronavirus outbreak on humans, the global economy has lost as much as $50 billion to the disease, the United Nations disclosed yesterday.

In Nigeria, there have been indications that prices of goods mainly imported from China, especially mobile phones, pharmaceuticals and clothing could surge depending on how quickly the virus is contained.