Senate approves 2024 budget, increases by N1.2 trillion
The 2024 Appropriation Bill has been approved by the Senate, raising the budget from the N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.
The bill was amended by the upper legislative chamber with an increase of about N1.2 trillion.
The approval of the bill came after the Senate Committee on Appropriation presented its report at the plenary session on Saturday.
Senator Solomon Adeola, who presented the report, said that the committee used the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Paper, MTEF/FSP, that was sanctioned by National Assembly to prepare the budget.
He explained that the committee adopted the 77.96 dollar per barrel oil benchmark 1.78mbpd and 800 dollar exchange rate to naira, which was higher than the 750 dollars suggested by the executive.
He outlined the main features of the bill to include a total aggregate expenditure of N28.7 trillion, statutory transfers of N1.7 trillion, and recurrent expenditure of N8.7 trillion, while the capital expenditure component amounted to N9.9 trillon.
He added that the committee collaborated with the executive in processing the bill.
He said that the executive submitted request for additional funding of some items on expenditure that were omitted in the bill as presented by the President, through the cooperative appropriation process.
He, however, noted that the 2024 Appropriation Bill was submitted to the National Assembly late.