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With zero budgeting, MDAs must complete projects yearly

By Francis Arinze Iloani

Unlike in previous budgets when Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) kept rolling over uncompleted projects into new budgets, the zero-based budgeting being adopted by the federal government will ensure that they complete all projects before the end of the year.

Explaining the concept of zero budgeting recently in Abuja, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Kaduna State University, Dr. Aminu Usman, said the new budgeting style will ensure that MDAs initiate only projects that are implementable.

“Now, Ministries, Parastatals and agencies are going to do budgets that are implementable. It is no longer budgeting for the sake of budgeting. This time around, government is saying, look, you must do zero budgeting. You assume what you have imbued today, you must finish by end of the year and then you request for another funding,” he said.

He said zero budgeting will improve the level of budget implementation in line with unforeseen circumstances with the revenue of the government.

“It will be much better than what we had before where you have a budget of N1bn and probably at the end of the day, maybe N200m or N300m will be spent and then the rest will now be taken next year,” he said.

Dr. Usman said with zero budgeting only projects that can be started and finished that can be accommodated in the budget.

Stocks index falls to 2 month low

Nigerian shares fell to a two-and-half-month low on Monday, dragged down by losses in the relatively liquid banking and consumer goods stocks, with the outlook for Africa’s biggest economy poor.

The stock market, which has the second-biggest weighting after Kuwait on the MSCI frontier market index , shed 1.07 percent to 28,532 points, a level last reached in August.

The index of Nigeria’s top 10 banking stocks shed 3.39 percent, with Stanbic IBTC losing the most

Access Bank to host anti-fraud forum for banks officials

From Kayode Ogunwale, Lagos

Stakeholders involved in Anti-Fraud functions in various banks will gather for an Anti-Fraud forum on November 19, 2015 to be hosted by Access Bank Plc.

The theme of the forum is “Fraud Management-The need for a Harmonized Approach,”

The forum according to the bank is an initiative of Access Bank to engage stakeholders on how to proactively solve the industry’s fraud challenges and to minimize frauds with active collaboration amongst stakeholders.

According to the Chief Internal Auditor, of Access Bank, Mr. Yinka Tiamiyu, “The Anti-Fraud forum is another way Access Bank demonstrates its commitment to go the extra mile towards using collaboration in fraud prevention.”

Representatives from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Inspector General of Police, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), Akintola Williams Deloitte House, Ernst & Young, KPMG and NIBSS are expected to attend the forum with other participants from various banks.

Nigerians bought fuel at N93 per litre in October – NBS

By Francis Arinze Iloani

Nigerians bought Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol at

average of N93.48 per litre in October as against N95.18 they paid for

the product in September.

A report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Sunday

indicated that the drop translated to N1.79 reduction per litre of

petrol month-on-month.

The amount paid for PMS in October was lower than the amount paid for

the product at the same period last year by N10.18.

Daily Trust’s analysis showed that Bayelsa maintained its position as

the state with the highest petrol price at N111 in October, down from

N119.83 which residents paid for the product in September.

The latest report indicated that residents of Katsina, Bauchi,

Adamawa, Ondo, Ekiti and Delta States now bought the petrol at

government approved price of N87 per litre in October.

Residents of Kano, Lagos and Abuja bought the product at an average of

N89.06, N89.94 and N108.20 respectively during the period.

Ashaka Cement loses N4.5bn to Boko Haram attacks

From Ahmed Mohammed,Gombe

The Ashaka cement Company a subsidiary of Lafarge Holmes has lost over N4.5 billion to two attacks suffered from Boko Haram on its plant.

The Chairman. Board of Director of the company Alhaji Suleiman Yahya stated this when he visited the Emir of Gombe Abubakar Shehu Abubakar in his palace.

Yahya said despite the attack, and poor market recorded because of the attack, Ashaka Cement was determined to continue in business as one of the surviving institutions in the entire north-eastern.

He said the company loses 18 Hilux, Jeep including new ambulance, they also took ten trips of ammonium sulfate,

Chairman said the company discovered additional Limestone and Coal that will last for over 100 years in Gombe State.

he said the Limestone will last for over 50 years while the Coal will last for over 60 years and assured the company readiness to continue in business for over 100 years in the area.

The emir of Gombe Abubakar Shehu Abubakar commended the company for the success they recorded in their business and advised them to do more to their host communities by building Schools, Hospitals and other basic infrastructures.

Why past development plans failed – Ministry

By Francis Arinze Iloani

The failure of the federal government to link previous national development plans to national budgets over the years has been responsible for the failure of the plans.

This position was articulated by a staff of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Phillip Obasi, in a message sent to Daily Trust by the Ministry’s Head of Information, Salisu Haiba.

Obasi reacted in response to Oby Ezekwesili’s recent criticism of federal government’s decision to merge budget with National Planning.

“It is a good policy to merge Budget and national planning. This approach tends to de-emphasis the difference between planning and budgeting and strengthen the link between the two. The wide gap between national development plans and development in Nigeria over the years can be explained in terms of lack of implementation of the Plans which can be further explained by the disappearance of the annual budget from the ideal planning cycle in Nigeria,” he argued.

Experts have observed that the failures of the nation’s first, second, third and fourth nationals plans could not succeed because they were not linked to the National budget.

Recently, the former Permanent Secretary of National Planning Commission, who is has been redeployed to the Ministry of Interior, Mr. Bassey Akpanyung, corroborated the position of experts that a plan which is not linked to budget cannot be implemented.

Speaking on why previous plans failed, Akpanyung explained that “because there was a disconnect between the plans and the Budget Office, not much was achieved from those development plans.”

Corroborating the Permanent Secretary’s assertions, Obasy explained that plans and annual budgets are different types of plans and wondered why the budget should exist outside the national planning or being prepared in ad hoc basis or in silos in the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Isuzu auto plant comes alive next year

From Mohammed Shosanya,Lagos

Koncept Autocentre Limited, representatives of Isuzu brand in Nigeria has disclosed that the brand will commence the production of its light trucks in Nigeria by the second quarter of next year a part of its efforts to ensure the growth of the nation’s auto industry

Mr Victor Eborajolo, Director of Koncept Autocentre said that the company is at the final stage of completing the assembly line at its Isolo Lagos premises.

He said Koncept Autocentre started plans for the new assembly plant last year and had since being having discussions with Isuzu Japan and General Motors, South Africa to make the plant a world class assembly line.

“We have the license from the Nigerian Automotive Development and Design have been finalized .We have finalized the models and logistics to processes and the assembly construction is going on at the moment,” he said.