Oil prices: Kwara begins budget review Friday

The Kwara state government will on Friday begin budget review sessions involving heads of various ministries, a step designed to urgently rework the N162 billion 2020 budget to align with the current global economic realities.

The budget had among other fundamentals been predicated on $57 per barrel of oil, but Nigeria’s Brent crude now trades at around $20 as at Wednesday afternoon, owing in part to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Commissioner for Finance and Planning, Mrs. Oyeyemi Florence, said in a statement on Wednesday that the review sessions hold at her ministry and would be staggered to avoid overcrowding in line with the COVID-19 safety protocols.

She said each session would feature the commissioner, permanent secretary, director of personnel finance and supply, director planning and research and statistics and controller finance and account of the affected ministry or agency.