As plans for next year’s budget begins to gather pace, the National Economic Council (NEC) has endorsed the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), which was presented to it at an emergency meeting of the Council, yesterday.

Besides the MTEF presentation, the NEC also updated its focus on the reports of the State Judicial Panels set up across the country after last year’s #EndSARS protests.

At the meeting, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo urged states where the panels were still sitting to also send interim reports to enable the Council to measure the progress.

According to the Vice President, the reports were being received ahead of a Council meeting where presentations would be made on them, both for states where the panels have concluded their work and those that are still sitting.

These were some of the major highlights of the emergency meeting of the Council, which held virtually and was presided over by the Vice President, with several state governors, the FCT Minister, Finance Minister, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and other government officials in attendance.

During the presentation of the MTEF to the Council, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, stated that the draft of the 2022-2024 MTEF/FSP was prepared against the backdrop of global economic recovery, amidst improved vaccination outlook and lower incidence of (COVID-19) infection.

She also said the Nigerian economy sustained a tepid recovery in the first quarter of 2021 posting a Year-on-Year (YoY) GDP growth of 0.51 per cent, consolidating the exit from recession in Q4 2020.

The Minister recalled that the economy, which lapsed into recession in Q3 2020, after two successive quarters of negative GDP growth, promptly emerged from the recession with a positive 0.11 per cent GDP growth in Q4 2020.

She added that the Medium Term Fiscal Framework showed that there was continuing global challenges in the aftermath of the COVID-19.

The presentation to the Council by the minister followed the public presentation of the paper last Thursday even as there would be a presentation to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) soon.

Also at the meeting, Council was informed that the issue of the repayment of the Budget Support Facility has now been resolved after a meeting presided over earlier this week by the Vice President, Governor Kayode Fayemi, representing the state governors, the Finance Minister and the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

Under the new arrangement, the CBN offered a fresh bridging financing to states as they resume the repayment of the FG-backed facility.