Date: 2016-12-15

A member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Mohammed Zakari (APC-Kwara), on Wednesday, called for full implementation of the 2017 budget to take the country out of recession.

Zakari made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. The lawmaker said more emphasis should be on the budget implementation.

He added that "I want to give the President the benefit of the doubt because there has not been anything wrong with budget presentation but the problem is the implementation.

"For me, I just think that it is an annual ritual but I will reserve my comments until we see full implementation. "Implementation is what takes budget to the next level because there is nothing by the figures except as they are written on a paper."

Zakari, who is the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services, noted that releases had been delayed in 2016.

He explained that "2016 so far, releases have been delayed as I talk to you I have had interface with some agencies, I can say under the Basic Education Committee, the agencies I oversight, there is none that has exceeded 20 per cent of performance.

"So, if that is the case and we are in the month of December, I am sure there will be a rollover, maybe the capital components of the budget and if that happens, it means when are we going to get the budget straight.

"There is nothing wrong with budget year in year out but the implementation has been a basic problem.

"This is because accessing the releases especially with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) now has made the entire process cumbersome because the Central Bank is not designed to do retail banking.

"So, there are bottlenecks in terms of releases. "I think that these problems definitely must be fixed in terms of releases and prompt releases for that matter".(NAN)