As the state of the nation’s economy remains uncertain due to the dwindling oil prices, the federal government has urged states to explore alternative sources of generating revenue in order to adequately supplement monthly allocations.
While addressing newsmen on Thursday after the National Economic Council, NEC in Abuja, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma said that states must also exercise caution in management of their resources.
Udoma said “At the council today, the Ministry of Budget and National Planning made a presentation on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF and the Fiscal Strategic Paper, FSP. The reports highlighted the government’s fiscal policy strategy and direction for the next three years.
“We also briefed council about government revenue and expenditure projections for the next three years. We briefed council about our view in terms of the global outlook and micro-economic frame work and the key assumptions underlining our projections .
“The presentation urged the states to adopt the MTEF and FSP which has now been approved by the National Assembly, which is the only body that can approve it.
“But we urged them to adopt it as a basis for the developing of their annual budgets. We also emphasised the need for states to be guided by the assumptions of the MTEF and also the need for states to be conservative in their expenditure and their expenditure projections for 2016-2018, in view of the declining oil price.
“We also urged states to look towards enhancing their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) and blocking financial leakages in the system and generally we emphasised the need in planning for the economy for the federal and state governments to work very closely with government because we are dealing with one economy.”
Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State added that the council was also briefed on the state of the Excess Crude Oil Account which currently stands at $2.257 billion as at the end of November, 2015 which shows a slight change in the previous balance which was $599, 137, 467.