National assembly passes 2024 budget on a Saturday by inflating it by extra N1.2 trillion
The National Assembly on Saturday passed the 2024 budget with an increase of about N1.2 trillion.
Both the Senate and the House increased the budget from N27.5 trillion presented by President Bola Tinubu in November to N28. 7 trillion.
They 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 per cent and the budget deficit was approved at N9.18 trillion.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the passage of the budget after the majority of the lawmakers supported it through a voice vote.
The budget was passed after considering a report presented by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Ogun West).
The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi (APC Kano), presented the report at the lower chamber.
Mr 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 lawmaker explained that the increase in the appropriation was as a result of a request for additional funding of items which were not listed in the Appropriation Bill as submitted by President Tinubu.
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He said the joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation observed inadequate funding in the budgetary allocations of some Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government
Breakdown
The breakdown of the budget as approved by the National Assembly 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
