Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze on Monday said the 2018 Appropriation Bill would be submitted to the National Assembly in October.
Speaking at the opening of a National Training for Personnel of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on 2018 Budget Preparation, using Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), in Lagos, Akabueze, who was represented by Mr Anslem Anyawu, the Director, Fiscal Policy Department, Budget Office, said government expects to get the appropriation bill passed latest by December 2017.
According to him, the target is critical considering the commitment of President Buhari’s led administration to return to a predictable January to December financial year prescribed in the constitution.
Akabueze said that the decision was in line with the administration’s steadfastness to take the economy out of recession and place it on path of sustainable growth.
He, however, said that the main goal of the training was to equip the participating personnel with knowledge, skills and tools required to prepare and submit the 2018 budget.
The DG said that the two-week training, which commenced a week ago, would take place in the six geopolitical zones for 800 MDAs nationwide.
He said that the Office embarked on the usage of technology and automation tools for improving on the quality of its budgeting process to improve the quality of budgeting process, through commitment to the use of technology and automation tools.
“For the 2017 Budget, MDAs prepared and presented their budgets online and in real time using a Zero Base Budgeting web-based application.
“It was the first time that MDAs were using online system to prepare and submit their budget with no manual intervention.
“The use of the web-based application helped eradicate a lot of the challenges encountered in previous years.”
He said that for 2018 budget preparation, the Office intends to improve on the experiences of the 2017 budget preparation, thereby simplifying the ZBB structure.
Akabueze said that all programmes, sub-programmes, activities and sub-activities had been mapped into the GIFMIS.
He said that the introduction of the GIFMIS would enhance the smooth and seamless linkage between budget preparation, submission, execution, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, compared to when it was pre-GIFMIS.
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