The federal government on Monday said one of the mandates of the committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari in the wake of the steep
decline of oil prices will be to assess the extent to which the 2020 budget will be cut.

The minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed, budget and national planning, disclosed his while addressing journalist after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja.

LagosTime had reported that Crude oil prices dropped below Nigeria’s $57 benchmark. As at 8am on Tuesday, Brent crude was trading at $36.70 per barrel.
She said the president has saddled them with the responsibility of weighing the impact of coronavirus on the economy, vis-a-vis it effects on crude oil prices.

Addressing journalists, she said: “We just met with the president to discuss the matter of the impact of the coronavirus on our economy and Mr President has formed us into a committee, with the minister of state, petroleum resources, the central bank governor, the GMD NNPC and myself as members.

“Our mandate is to make a quick assessment of the impact of this coronavirus on the economy, especially as it affects the crude oil price”

She said the committee will submit its report to the president on Wednesday after which they will be able to fully brief the public and media.

“We will be writing a report and brief him tomorrow or Wednesday morning and after that, we’ll also have more substantial information for the press.

“It is very clear that we will have to revisit the crude oil benchmark price that we have of $57 per barrel, we have to revisit it and lower the price. Where it will be lowered to is the subject of the work of this committee.

“What the impact will be on that is that there will be reduced revenue to the budget and it will mean cutting the size of the budget. The quantum of the cut is what we are supposed to assess as a committee.”

In his remarks, Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum, said Nigeria cannot engage either Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“We, as a member of OPEC, are not in a position to take that engagement on our own unilaterally. There was a disagreement between OPEC and OPEC+, it’s not just Russia, but the biggest producers within OPEC and OPEC+ are Saudi Arabia and Russia.

“We believe that in the coming days when all of us would have begun to see the effect of the reduction of prices, OPEC and OPEC+ might need to meet again and reconsider our positions.”

Oil prices fell as a result of a disagreement between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies.