Looted Cash Recovered from Big Men to Fund Part of 2017 budget

The Federal Government is proposing to fund part of the 2017 budget deficit of N2.69tn from funds recovered from big men and woman who looted Nigeria's treasury.

The proposal is contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper, which was submitted to the National Assembly.

The Senate had dismissed the 2017-2019 MTEF/FSP sent to it by President Muhammadu Buhari and described the documents as “empty” and as such should not be considered.

MTEF provides the basis for annual budget planning and consists of a macroeconomic framework that indicates fiscal targets, estimates, revenues and expenditures, including government’s financial obligations in the medium term.

The document, prepared by Ministry of Budget and National Planning, also sets out the underlying assumptions for the projections, provides an evaluation and analysis of the previous budget, and presents an overview of the consolidated debt and potential fiscal risks.

In the document, the Federal Government is proposing to spend the sum of N6.86tn in 2017, with total revenue of N4.16tn.

Based on the funding gap of N2.69tn, an effective strategy would be adopted in financing the deficit.

For instance, the government said while part of the deficit would be financed with recoveries from looted funds, the rest would be from borrowings.

The government gave the breakdown of the recovered loot as:

N78,325,354,631.82; $185,119,584.61; £3,508,355.46 and €11,250.

According to the minister, a separate amount of cash and assets worth N2tn have also been seized, the assets and cash seized under interim forfeiture totalled $9bn, N126bn, £2.4m and €303,399.

He added that funds awaiting return from foreign jurisdictions totalled $321,316,726.1; £6,900,000 and €11,826.11.