Nigerian Senate jerks up 2024 budget to N28.5 trillion to accommodate unlisted items

The Senate has jerked the 2024 budget from N27.5 trillion to N28.5 trillion submitted by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly.

Tinubu had in November submitted the 2024 budget to the joint sitting of the National Assembly, The Eagle Online reports, adding that the budget was passed following a voice vote by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Before then, the Senate had considered the report of the Appropriation Bill presented by the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Senator Adeola Solomon.

The upper legislative chamber also pegged the benchmark of oil price at $77.96 per barrel of crude oil to reflect the current market values of the product in the international market.

The federal lawmakers approved the oil production rate of 1.78 million barrels per day and the exchange rate of N800 to a US dollar.

The GDP growth rate was pegged at 3.88 percent, and the budget deficit was approved at N9.18 trillion.

Olamilekan, while presenting the report, recommended that N1.7 trillion be approved for Statutory Transfers and N8 2 trillion be approved for debt service.

The committee chairman also recommended that N8.7 trillion be approved as recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N9.9 trillion be approved as capital expenditure.

The breakdown of budget as approved by the Senate is as follows:

• Aggregate Expenditure -N28,777,404,073,861
• Statutory Transfers -N1,742,786,788,150
• Recurrent Expenditure – N8,768,513,380,852
• Capital Expenditure – N9,995,143,298,028
• GDP – 3.88 %

Speaking on the report of the committee, Senator Olamilekan recommended that N8.7 trillion be approved as recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N9.9 trillion be approved as capital expenditure.

He explained to his colleagues that the increase of N1. 2 trillion in the appropriation was due to a request for additional funding of items that were not listed in the Appropriation Bill as submitted by President Tinubu.