PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has signed the 2024 appropriation bill into law.
Tinubu assented to the bill at a brief ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday, January 1, 2024.
His action followed the passing of the appropriation bill by the Senate after its third reading and consideration and approval of the report of the Joint Committee on Appropriation of the House of Representatives and the Senate on December 30, 2023.
The version of the bill passed by the Senate showed an increase of over N1.2 trillion from the N27.5 trillion proposal that Tinubu laid before the joint sitting of the National Assembly on November 29.
A breakdown of the approved budget by the Senate showed an aggregate expenditure of N28.7 trillion, including N1.7 trillion for statutory transfers. Also, N8.76 trillion was approved for recurrent expenditure, N9.99 trillion for capital expenditure, and N8.27 trillion for debt service. Accordingly, the gross domestic product (GDP) was set at 3.88 per cent.
Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, Olamilekan Adeola, while presenting the committee’s report, said most of the sub-committees during budget defence complained of inadequate funds and a decline in budgetary allocation to ministries, departments and agencies under their purview in addition to the rising costs in the polity and the continuous devalue of naira.
He also disclosed that the executive forwarded requests for additional funding and some items of expenditure to the committee which were not included in the bill the President had submitted.
To accommodate the request, he said the committee made adjustments on foreign exchange differential, government-owned enterprises (GOE) revenue increase, GOE personnel reduction, service-wide vote wage adjustment, and a reduction from service-wide.
In preparing the 2024 appropriation bill details, the committee adopted the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) approved by the National Assembly, including basic assumptions and parameters for the 2024 fiscal year.
Also, stating the reason for the budget increment, the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Abubakar Kabir Bichi, explained that the budget increment by N1.2 trillion was due to revenue prospects from Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) and inflation.
Meanwhile, at the budget signing event were the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.
Others include Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Abubakar; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila; the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje; and Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M