THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the 2019 budget proposal after a special meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday.

Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udoma, said this while addressing journalists shortly after the FEC meeting ended.

He said the Council will liaise with the National Assembly on the appropriate date for the president to formally present the appropriation bill to the lawmakers for consideration and passage into law.

However, Udoma refused to comment on the details of the budget, saying that the constitution allows only the president to give out the details and that he will do just that when he presents the document before the National Assembly.

Recall that earlier in October, the FEC had approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for 2019  to 2021, which was the template from which the 2019 budget would be drafted. According to the documents, the 2019 budget was pegged at an estimated N8.73 trillion, N400 billion lower than the N9.1 trillion of 2018.

The estimated price of crude oil per barrel was fixed at $60, an estimated 2.3 million barrels of crude oil is expected to be produced daily, and the exchange rate remains N305 to 1USD.