Comments by Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, after Economic Management Team (EMT) Meeting, Tue 02 Aug 2016

"We just finished a special meeting of the Economic Management Team. As you know, we are in the middle of consultations to develop a new medium-term economic framework. Last week, we had meetings with NGOs, today we met some economists, we met with Mr. Bismarck Rewane, Professor Akpan Ekpo, Dr. Ayo Teriba, Professor Badayi Sani, and Mr. Bode Agusto, and they made presentations to the Economic Management Team on their response to the draft Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which is still a consultative document. So this is part of a comprehensive consultation process that we are embarking on, to make sure that we reach out to a wide spectrum of Nigerians to get feedback in terms of how best to make sure that we come out of this recession; and that we get the best possible MTEF. The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires us to do so. On Thursday (Aug 4), we will be meeting in Lagos with the private sector, to carry on with the consultations. So at the end we will come out with a programme that has received the buy-in of many Nigerians; and in which there has been wide consultation."