The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Papers (MTEF/FSP), setting new parameters ahead of its presentation to the National Assembly.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who briefed newsmen after the Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday.
According to the Minister, the price of crude oil adopted for the MTEF has been pegged at $70 per barrel in 2023; $66 in 2024 and $62 in 2025.
“Crude oil production is projected to be 1.69million bpd for 2023 and 1.813million bpd for both 2024 as well as 2025. We have also projected that the nominal GDP, that the size of Nigeria economy will rise up to N225.5trillion with 95% of this contribution by the non-oil sector while the oil sector will be contribution only 5%.
“And some steady increase from 2024 2025 to reach up to N280.70trillion in 2025. This means that Nigeria continues to retain its position as the largest economy in Africa”, she stated.
Responding to question on the depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA), the Minister said that State Governors, also joint owners of the accounts, were aware of the withdrawals from the accounts.
According to her, the account has not had accruals in the last four years because of the volatility of the commodity in the international market adding that withdrawals from the accounts have always been in consultations with the National Economic Council (NEC).
She said “the last approval that was given by the Council was the withdrawal of $1billion to enhance security. We have been utilizing that – the last tranche of that has been finally released because deployment to security agencies are based on the contracts executed and it’s been used strictly for that security purpose. So, the utilization of the account is with the full knowledge of the Governors.”
