By Emele Onu
Snr Finance Correspondent

Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said at the Breakfast Meeting of Corporate Nigeria on Monday that the government would stick to the 2006 budget, which it hopes to implement to the hilt, and that a supplementary vote is not necessary as all development needs have been provided for in the budget.

Supplementary budget is an estimate of public revenue and expenditure made by the executive and passed by the National Assembly for projects not contained in the main budget.

Analysts have argued that making expenditure commitments outside the initial budget smacks of indiscipline and is responsible for the lack of focus in the budgetary system.

Okonjo-Iweala explained in an exclusive interview that the government is conscious of exigencies that may call for funding outside the budget and has provided a contingency vote of N6 billion for minor items.

How to sustain the international credit ratings received by the country recently dominated discussion at the breakfast meeting.

She pledged that the government would ensure that the global confidence in Nigeria’s policy reforms, which informed the favorable ratings, would endure beyond the present administration.

The country’s first international currency and credit ratings were received early this year.

The rating agencies, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P), assigned to Nigeria a “BB-” for long term foreign currency rating and a “BB” for long term local currency rating.

S&P gave it a “B” for short term sovereign credit rating.

The grades are interpreted to mean that Nigeria’s socio economic and political outlook is stable.

Corporate Nigeria is concerned about the sustainability of the ratings on the ground that they are crucial assessment tools for investors and businesses seeking information about the financial risks in developed and emerging markets.

The ratings are also important to local companies that borrow or seek to borrow on international financial markets.

Good sovereign credit ratings mean that indigenous companies can borrow at a lower rate from such markets.

Giving the advantages of the ratings, speakers at the event, including former Minister of Finance, Kalu Idika Kalu, argued for their sustenance through adherence to policy and political reforms as well as improvement in social infrastructure and legal processes.

Possible drawbacks to the sustenance of the ratings, analysts noted, are developments after next year’s general elections when the chief reformers, President Olusegun Obasanjo and his economic team, led by Okonjo-Iweala, are expected to leave office.

Officials of the rating agencies have maintained that in the event of worsening security that threatens oil production or deviation from policy reforms, the ratings could become lower.

But Okonjo-Iweala stressed that the government is keen on bequeathing an enduring policy that would ensure that all the landmarks recorded now would last.

The administration does this by building institutions that will transcend regimes, Iweala stated, and that it lays emphasis on issues like the rule of law, fiscal responsibility and due diligence so that even if personalities change, those foundations for an enduring and progressive state structure would remain.