Senate Approves MTEF/FSP, Probes NNPCL Over N8.4trn Withheld Subsidy Funds

Ahead of President Bola Tinubu’s 2025 budget presentation before the joint session of the National Assembly, which is imminent, the Senate on Tuesday approved the 2025–2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, which the president earlier submitted.

The approval followed the adoption of the report of Senate joint Committees on Finance; and National Planning & Economic Affairs, chaired by Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East) during plenary.

This was even as the Red Chamber mandated its Committees on Finance, Petroleum (Upstream), Petroleum (Downstream), and Gas to investigate reports from the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Responsibility Commission, RMAFC, alleging that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, withheld N8.48 trillion as claimed subsidies for petrol.

It noted that the investigation would address the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI report, stating that NNPCL failed to remit $2 billion (N3.6 trillion) in taxes to the Federal Government.

The Senate further directed its committees to verify the total cumulative amount of unremitted revenue (under-recovery) from the sale of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, by the NNPCL between 2020 and 2023.

However, it directed the relevant committees to carry out an in-depth investigation of such agreements by the NNPCL, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, and Immigration Services to reconcile remittances to the Federation Account.

In the three-year projections, the Senate pegged the exchange rate at N1,400/$ for 2025, 2026, and 2027, respectively.

It also projected oil benchmark prices at $75, $76.2 and $75.3 per barrel for 2025, 2026 and 2027 respectively.

The Senate added that the three-year projections for domestic crude oil production significantly increased from 1.78m bpd in the preceding year to 2.06, 2.10, and 2.35 for the subsequent years of 2025, 2026, and 2027, respectively.

It further projected Gross Domestic Product, GDP growth rates of 4.6 per cent, 4.4 per cent, and 5.5 per cent for 2025, 2026 and 2027.

The Red Chamber also projected the inflation rates at 15.75 per cent, 14.21 per cent, and 10.04 per cent for 2025, 2026, and 2027, respectively.

It, however, demanded a reduction in the petrol prices against the backdrop of the commencement of production at the Port Harcourt refinery.

According to the recommendations, “The 2025 Federal Government of Nigeria budget proposed spending of N47.9 Trillion, of which N34.82 trillion is retained. New borrowings stood at N9.22 trillion, composed of domestic and foreign borrowings.

“Capital expenditure is projected at N16.48 trillion with statutory transfers standing at N4.26 trillion and sinking funds projected at N430.27 billion.”

Speaking during a debate on the report, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Ogun West), chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, referenced the Federal Government’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative as the underlying imperative for the adoption of the N1,400 to one dollar.

“With the functioning of our refineries, the demand for Forex will drop. With the CNG initiative, Nigerians will have an option for your information. If you leave Benin for Lagos, the amount of fuel is about 130,000, but with CNG, you can’t use more than N48,000. Another issue to be addressed is the recurrent to-capital ratio, which is very high,” he said.

In his contribution, the former Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (PDP Kebbi North), stressed the need to support the manufacturing industries if the MTEF projections are to be achieved.

In his remarks, Senate President Senator Godswill Akpabio commended the chairman and members of the joint committees for their in-depth analysis and general good work on the document.