The federal government on Wednesday said it might have to review the approved 2020 budget over the economic impact of coronavirus.

Minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, while addressing newsmen after federal executive council meeting said the government was increasingly concerned over the economic effect the disease might have as it has the potential to spread.

She explained that crude oil production is now between two million and 2.1 million barrels per day, which is below the benchmark on which the budget was prepared.

Ahmed said a midterm review would be done to determine if the budget should be tinkered with to align it with current realities.

she said We are concerned because it does have an impact on revenue and at the current crude oil price of $53 is below the budget bench mark. What we are doing is that we are studying the situation and when the budget was passed we committed to do a midterm review.

“We will do the midterm review and if the revenues are so significantly affected, we will have to do some revisions in the budget by way of budget adjustment.

“I will want to inform you that the crude production is now at 2 million barrels per day and in some days it has moved up to 2.1 million barrels per day, so that in itself will be a cushion.

“All the same we are not taking any measures now until we have a reasonable period to make a review and then we may need to make an adjustment of budget through working together with the national assembly.”

The minister also said the council approved the memo for the issuance of sovereign guarantee for the Ajaokuta- Kaduna-Kano pipeline.

She said the memo was jointly presented by her ministry and the ministry of petroleum resources.

In his remark while addressing newsmen, minister of science and technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, said the US was currently conducting tests on the chemical compound discovered by Maurice Iwu, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a potential cure for coronavirus.

Although the new coronavirus, named COVID-19, first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, Iwu, the chief executive officer of Bioresources Institute of Nigeria (BION), a research organisation, said his team had worked on solutions to coronaviruses, such as SARS, since 2015.

“They are testing it in the US to confirm whether this could be a cure for Covid-19 or SARS,” he said.

The 2020 budget of N10.59 trillion was passed by the national assembly on December 5, 2019, and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 17.

The budget was based on crude oil benchmark of $57 per barrel with a production capacity of 2.1 million barrels per day.

But the virus, which has spread through 64 countries, has negatively affected the price of crude oil, Nigeria’s major source of revenue.