National Assembly passes N28.777 trillion 2024 budget of renewed hope, raises Tinubu’s Appropriation Bill of N27.5 by N1.2 trillion

By Abiodun OBA

The National Assembly has passed the budget for the 2024 fiscal year.

The passed budget by the Senate and House of Representatives was raised from N27.5 trillion presented by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, November 29th to N28.7 trillion.

This shows an increase of over N1.2 trillion.

The Senate also increased the exchange rate from N750 to N800 per dollar while the 1.78mbpd daily oil production, US$77.96 oil benchmark price and GDP growth rate of 3.88% were approved as proposed by the executive arm of government.

The passage of the budget was a sequel to the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation presented by the chairman, Olamilekan Adeola, APC, Ogun West.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday 29th November 2023, presented the budget to the joint session of the National Assembly which he tagged “budget of renewed hope.”

However, the Senate, on Friday 1st December 2023, passed the N27.5 trillion 2023 budget for second reading.

The passage of the appropriation bill for the second reading followed a substantial debate on its general principles which had commenced on Thursday 30th November, 2023. Both chambers immediately suspended plenary, to dedicate their time to the budget defence sessions at committee levels.

The budget which is Tinubu’s first budget as the President of Nigeria was based on a non-debt recurrent expenditure of 9.92 trillion naira while debt service was projected to be 8.25 trillion naira and capital expenditure is 8.7 trillion naira.

Breakdown of the approved 2024 Budget:

Aggregate – 28,777,404,73, 861

Statutory transfer – N1, 742,786,788,150

Debt service – N8,270,960,606, 831

Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure – N8,768,513,380,852

Contribution to the development of the Capital expenditure – N9,995,143,298,28

Adeola urged the executive to ensure compliance and provide adequate funds to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)

The Senate, thereafter, dissolved into the Committee of Supply, which considered and passed the budget.

Meanwhile, the Senate also approved the securitisation of outstanding 7. 388trn Ways and Means following the request of President Tinubu which aims to realise the reduction of debt service cost and to extend the repayment period of the existing loans.

The Ways and Means provision allows the government to borrow from the Central Bank in the event that it requires short-term or emergency financing to support delayed government projected cash receipts of fiscal shortfalls.

According to the President’s letter to the Senate, the interest rate for the securitized Ways and Means advances has been reduced to 9% per annum, compared to the MPR of +3%.

The parameters of the securitisation of Ways and Means advances as gazetted by the Debt Management Office (DMO) entail the Federal Government issuing debt securities with a 40-year tenor to the CBN, with a 5% interest rate and a 3-year moratorium on principal repayments.