Senate increases 2024 budget to N28.7trn

The Senate has increased the 2024 budget from N27.5 trillion to N28.7 trillion.

The Senate increased the 2024 budget by N1.2 trillion.

This was contained in a report submitted by the Senate Committee on Appropriation led by Senator Solomon Adeola at plenary in Abuja on Saturday, December 30, 2023.

According to the report, the aggregate expenditure was pegged at N28,777,404.073.861; statutory transfers at N1,742,786,788,150; recurrent expenditure at N8,768.5330,852; capital expenditure at N9,995,143,298,028; and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 3.88 per cent.

Adeola said the committee adopted the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Paper (MTEF/FSP) approved by the National Assembly in preparing the budget.

He said the committee adopted the 77.96 dollar per barrel oil benchmark 1.78mbpd and 800 dollar exchange rate to naira as against 750 dollar proposed by the executive.

Adeola said the committee in processing the bill worked closely with the executive harmoniously.

He said through the close and harmonious appropriation process, the executive forwarded a request for additional funding for some items on expenditure that were not included in the bill as submitted by President Bola Tinubu.

President Tinubu had, on November 29, presented the N27.5 trillion budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly.

Presenting the budget tagged “Budget of Renewed Hope”, Tinubu said its main focus was on national defence, internal security, local job creation, and macro-economic stability.

The president said the budget was made up of N9.92 trillion non-debt recurrent expenditure and N8.7 trillion capital expenditure, while N8.25 trillion was for debt service.

He said: “Accordingly, an aggregate expenditure of N27.5 trillion is proposed for the Federal Government in 2024, of which the non-debt recurrent expenditure is N9.92 trillion, while debt service is projected to be N8.25 trillion and capital expenditure is N8.7 trillion.

“Nigeria remains committed to meeting its debt obligations. Projected debt service is 45 per cent of the expected total revenue.

“The budget deficit is projected at N9.18 trillion in 2024 or 3.88 per cent of GDP. This is lower than the N13.78 trillion deficit recorded in 2023, which represented 6.11 per cent of GDP.

“The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totalling N7.83 trillion, N298.49 billion from Privatization Proceeds, and N1.05 trillion draw down on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects.”

The Star

Segun Ojo