The Senate and the House of Representatives have adopted $53 as the oil benchmark price for the 2015 budget.
The adoption was agreed in a meeting of the Conference Committee of the two chambers in a meeting yesterday, ahead of the anticipated passage of the N4.3 trillion budget by the National Assembly.
The Senate committee was headed by Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, while that of the House was headed by Rep Abdulmumin Jibrin, both of whom head their respective finance committees.
The chambers had separately approved the benchmark with the Senate agreeing to $52, while the House had settled on $54 per barrel.
The 150 billion naira budget of the National Assembly was also slashed by 30 billion naira, with this, the National Assembly’s budget for the year is now N120 billion.