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ABUJA - Nigeria's parliament has approved a spending plan of 976.254 billion naira (7.68 billion dollars) for the west African country this year, officials say.

The appropriation committees of both the Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday raised by 28% the estimates President Olusegun Obasanjo sent to the National Assembly last November.

Officials said the rise was necessitated by the need to beef up security amid growing political violence in Africa's most populous country ahead of general elections in April.

Dozens of people have been killed in politically motivated violence in the run-up to the polls, the first since May 1999 when Nigeria returned to democracy after 15 years of military rule.

A prominent opposition leader, Marshall Harry, was  shot dead by unknown gunmen in his home in the country's capital Abuja after returning from a late night political meeting.

The parliament allocated 593.9 billion naira (4.6 billion dollars) to recurrent expenditure while capital spending will account for 382.3 billion naira (around 3 billion dollars).

The budget is expected to be financed by earnings from oil, the mainstay of the country's economy.

The budget is based on an oil price of 22 dollars per barrel, as  against 18 dollars proposed by the president, with parliament citing the improved fortunes of oil on the international market.

Oil prices have risen significantly in recent months owing to apprehension over a possible US-led war against Iraq and the political crisis in Venezuela.

Nigeria is the world's fifth largest oil producer. Oil is the west African country's prime resource and accounts for 90 percent of its exports by value.

www.vanguardngr.com By Hector Igbikiowubo with agency report Monday, March 03, 2003

OIL  prices soared, sky-rocketing up to almost $40 per barrel in New York for the first time since the 1990-91 Gulf war as anxieties grew about a looming war in Iraq and depleted US oil stock levels. Nigeria has also indicated its willingness to supply more crude oil should the need arise, with  industry operators saying that it can conveniently feed the market with three million barrels per day.

At weekend the price of benchmark Brent, North Sea crude oil for April delivery stood at 33.10 dollars a barrel from 32.28 dollars a week earlier.

In New York, April-dated light sweet crude futures traded at 37.20 dollars from 35.45 dollars the previous week..

Traders chased prices higher on fears that a war in Iraq could be just around the corner, threatening disruption to Middle East supplies while US oil stocks are close to a 27-year low.

“A potentially supply-disruptive war may begin at any moment,” said Mike Fitzpatrick, oil trader at Fimat USA in New York.

Traders were fretting about the possible loss of Iraq oil while stocks of US crude oil and heating fuels are already reaching alarmingly low levels, analysts said.

“Crude-oil inventories remain about as low as they possibly can be in the States and then you throw in on top of that the geopolitical concerns and you’ve got the recipe for crude moving up towards 40 dollars,” said JP Morgan analyst Paul Horsnell.

“In terms of the key oil products, we’re just running out,” he added.

Analysts said that the decision taken last month by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to pump more oil to compensate for a strike in Venezuela had come too late to quell a price spike.

And the market took little comfort from Saddam Hussein’s pledge not to torch his country’s oilfields if attacked, or Saudi Arabia’s insistence that it could pump an extra 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day if a Gulf war interrupted Iraq’s exports.

Nigerian oil industry operators have also given indication of their willingness to supply more crude oil to the international market to augment whatever short fall that may arise from supply glitches resulting from a possible US-led attack on Iraq.

Energy This Week gathered that although the Federal Government had late last year put the nation’s crude oil producibility at between 2.7 and 2.8 million barrels per day, presently, the nation has achieved a producibility level of 3 million barrels per day.

The operators pointed out that Shell’s EA field has since come on stream, adding about 150,000 barrels per day to the nation’s output, while Mobil’s Yoho also came on stream recently, adding 90,000 barrels per day to the nation’s output.   

allafrica.com Public Agenda (Accra) EDITORIAL March 3, 2003 Posted to the web March 3, 2003

Accra

In spite of all the gloss being put on the 2003 budget, the economic outlook is not good for the Ghanaian. At ¢9.200 the minimum wage has broken the dollar barrier for the first time in recent times. But that is cold comfort against the rocketing cost of goods and services. Transportation to and from the office alone is likely to erode one third of the new wage.

Then comes the cost of crude oil. The uncertainties about whether or not America will invade Iraq and the paralysis visited on Venezuela by the opposition's resolve to remove President Hugo Chavez has conspired to push oil prices to the high heavens. At the time of going to press on Friday, Brent Crude was offered on the international market at $40 a barrel. At the time the Ministry of Energy increased petroleum prices by nearly 100 per cent, crude was offered at $28 a barrel. On the evidence of the rising fuel imports alone, Ghanaians are in for a tough time.

The bad news for most Ghanaians is that it is not only oil that poses a serious challenge to this nation's ability to balance the books. The electricity front is equally challenging. The onset of the dry season means that the water level in the Akosombo Dam is lowering in its ability to hold water to turn the turbines.

As President John Agyekum Kufuor outlined in his Sessional Address to Parliament, we are all in for a very rough ride this year. The Government, according to Minister of Finance Yaw Osafo-Maafo faces the challenge of dealing with higher than expected expenditure on wages and salaries, higher than anticipated subsidies to utility companies and worse of all substantial shortfalls in expected foreign inflows.

The shortfall means that the over-burdened Ghanaian will have to fork out the difference if Government should meet its target in developmental projects. These are hard times but we expect the government to cushion the poor and vulnerable in society.

According to the Finance Minister Government has allocated c4,633 billion made up of ¢3,553 from state resources, c680 billion from the HIPC fund for 2003 and c400 billion resources left over from 2002 to implement programmes and projects directly affecting the poor. Public Agenda hopes this would translate into quality education, affordable medical care, good social services and general improvement in the living standards of the rural folks. We hope the HIPC disbursement will go beyond paper guarantees.

Public Agenda is also happy that the government has taken the bold step to slap additional tariffs on imported poultry and rice. This will go a long way to protect local industries against unfair competition. In fact this paper thinks that five percent levy on rice is not enough and that government should have made it at least 10 percent to discourage the mad rush for foreign goods.

The retention of the National Reconstruction Levy for another three years is in the right direction. We urge the Government not to give in to those clamouring for a review. The banks are making obscene profits for virtually doing nothing. They must pay towards the infrastructure re-engineering of this country.