Senate raises committee to assess impact of coronavirus on economy

THE Senate on Tuesday set up a joint Committee to assess the impact of the deadly Coronavirus on the nation’s economy.

The Joint Committee comprised Senate four Standing Committees on Finance, National Planning, Appropriation, and Petroleum Downstream.

The composition of the Committee followed the adoption of a motion raised by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, during the plenary.

Abdullahi, who came under Order 43, drew the attention of the upper legislative chamber to the global economic downturn where Nigeria as a country is not an exception, adding that the country must prepare for the eventuality.

He also expressed concern over the increasing spread of the coronavirus that had killed over 3, 000 people in 17 countries since January.

“It has become imperative to come up with such a Committee because the 2020 budget was predicated on crude oil bench of $57 per barrel and daily production capacity of 2.1 million barrels per day. But there is a crash of crude oil price in the international market from $53 per barrel last week to $35 per barrel,” the Senate leader added.

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The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who announced the constitution of the joint committee, said it would be saddled with the task of engaging the Federal Government on measures to be taken to insulate the economy against the impact of the sudden crash of crude oil price in the international market.

The panel, according to him, will also revisit the crude oil benchmark of $53 per barrel proposed in the 2020 budget.

Lawan said: “The issue of the current situation affecting the entire world, and the second we are suffering from today is the crash in the price of crude oil.

“We passed the Fiscal Strategy Paper and MTEF, and subsequently the budget on the benchmark price of $57 per barrel. Today, that price has crashed to $31 per barrel or thereabout, and we don’t know where this will stop.”

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