The National Assembly (NASS) yesterday passed the 2024 appropriation bill of N28.7 trillion.
The budget size was increased by N1.2 trillion, from the N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.
The Senate and House of Representatives passed the budget at their respective plenary presided over by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House, Tajaudeen Abbas.
This was following a report presented by the chairman of the Senate committee on appropriation, Solomon Olamilekan, and that of the House, Abubakar Bichi on Saturday.
The budget has N1.7 trillion as statutory transfers, N8.7 trillion as recurrent expenditure, N9.9 trillion as capital expenditure, and debt service of 8.2 Trillion Naira.
Recall, President Tinubu presented the record N27.5 trillion 2024 appropriation bill, called “Budget of Renewed Hope”
to the joint session of the national assembly in November 2023.
He explained that “after a careful review of developments in the world oil market and domestic conditions, we have adopted a conservative oil price benchmark of 77.96 US Dollars per barrel and daily oil production estimate of 1.78 million barrels per day. We have also adopted a Naira to US Dollar exchange rate of 750 naira per US Dollar for 2024.
“Accordingly, an aggregate expenditure of 27.5 trillion naira is proposed for the Federal Government in 2024, of which the non-debt recurrent expenditure is 9.92 trillion naira while debt service is projected to be 8.25 trillion naira and capital expenditure is 8.7 trillion naira. Nigeria remains committed to meeting its debt obligations. Projected debt service is 45% of the expected total revenue.
“Budget deficit is projected at 9.18 trillion naira in 2024 or 3.88 percent of GDP. This is lower than the 13.78 trillion naira deficit recorded in 2023 which represents 6.11 percent of GDP.
“The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totalling 7.83 trillion naira, 298.49 billion naira from Privatization Proceeds, and 1.05 trillion naira drawdown on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects”, he said.
Going by the approved budget, the Ministry of Defence got the highest allocation of N1.3tn. The Ministry of Police Affairs with N869.121bn. The Ministry of Education, N857.134bn. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, N667.577bn. The Ministry of Interior, N362.552bn. The Ministry of Youths, N201.467bn. The Office of the National Security Adviser, N199.763bn. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, N140.456bn. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, N110.248bn. The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N100.248bn. The Presidency, N97.913bn.
The sum of N78.624bn was approved for the House of Representatives. N49.145bn for the Senate. N36.727bn for the National Assembly Office. N30.807bn for general services. N20.388bn for legislative aides. N15.189bn for Service Wide Vote. N15bn for the National Assembly Hospital project.
N12.326 for the National Assembly Service Commission. N12.123bn for the National Assembly Library Complex (take-off grant). N10bn for the ongoing construction of NASC headquarters. N9.008bn for the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies. N4.5bn for the completion of the ongoing NILDS building.
N4bn for the National Assembly Recreation Centre. N4bn for the design, construction, furnishing, and equipping of the National Assembly’s Budget and Research Office. Urban for procurement of books for the National Assembly Library. N3bn Senate car park. N3bn for the House of Representatives car park. N3bn for the upgrade of key infrastructure in the National Assembly.
N3bn for the design, construction, furnishing, and equipping of the assembly’s ultramodern printing press. N2.7bn for furnishing of committee meeting rooms and other offices within the Senate building. N3bn for furnishing of committee meeting rooms for the House of Representatives. N2.5bn for the National Assembly Pension Board (take-off grant).
N1.230bn for the office of retired clerks & permanent secretaries. N1bn for constitution review. N130m for Public Accounts Committee (Senate). N150m for Public Accounts Committee (House). N200m for Senate Appropriations Committee. N200m for the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee.
The Approved 2024 Budget for the statutory transfers: National Judicial Council got the highest allocation of N341.626bn, followed by Niger Delta Development Commission with N338.925bn. Universal Basic Education Commission, N263.044bn. North East Development Commission, N131.836bn. Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, N131.522bn. National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, N131.522bn. Public Complaint Commission, N14.46bn. N5bn for the National Human Rights Commission.
