The Senate has just passed the 2024 Federal Government budget, with an increase of about N1.2 trillion.
The original figure presented before the joint session of the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu a couple of weeks ago was N27.5 Trillion, but the amount approved today, December 30, was N28.7 Trillion.
The Senate 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 Senate, in passing the budget, also 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 Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Ogun West).
While presenting the report, the committee
recommended that N1.7 trillion be approved for Statutory Transfers and N8 2 trillion be approved for Debt service.
The committee also recommended that N8.7 trillion be approved as recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N9.9 trillion be approved as capital expenditure.
It said that the increase in the appropriation is as a result of a request for additional funding of items which were not listed in the Appropriation Bill as submitted by President Tinubu.
The committee chairman hinted that the joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation observed inadequate funding in the budgetary allocation of some Ministeries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government
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 %
After presenting the report, the Senate dissolved into the Committee of Supply, which considered and passed the budget.
