Senate Raises 2024 Budget By N1.2tn

The Senate has passed the 2024 budget for a third reading.

The Senate also increased the bill by a total of N1.2tn, moving the budget from N27.5tn to N28.7tn.

The budget was passed following a voice vote by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Before then, the Senate had considered the report of the Appropriation Bill presented by the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Senator Adeola Solomon.

The Senate pegged the Aggregate Expenditure at 28,777,404.073.861; Statutory Transfers -1,742,786,788,150; Recurrent Expenditure- 8,768.5330,852 ; Capital Expenditure-9,995,143,298,028 and GDP at 3.88%

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, November 29, presented a total of N27.5tn to a joint section of the National Assembly.

The President pegged the budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year at N9.18 tn.

He said the deficit represents 3.88 per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product

Tinubu stated, “The N9.18 trillion deficit is lower than the “N13.78 trillion naira deficit recorded in 2023 which represents 6.11 per cent of GDP.

“The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totalling N7.83tn, N298.49BN from Privatization Proceeds and 1.05 trillion naira drawdown on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects.”

The PUNCH had reported that the Senate had on Friday, December 1, passed the budget for a second reading.

The Publication had also earlier reported that the National Assembly will pass the budget today, Saturday.