The national assembly has passed the 2020 appropriation and raised its budget from N125 billion to N128 billion.
The increment of the parliamentarian’s budget forms part of the increase in the size of the national budget, which has been raised from the proposed N10.33 trillion presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 8 to N10.6 trillion
In the report presented by the chairman, senate committee on appropriation, Mr. Barau Jibrin, N560.47 billion is for statutory transfers (a category into which the National Assembly budget falls).
While the senate maintained Nigeria’s daily oil production rate at 2.18 million per barrel, it, however, increased the Oil Benchmark Price to $57 per barrel against the $55 proposed by the Executive.
The committee retained the inflation rate at 10.81 per cent and the exchange rate at N305-$1 as proposed by the executive. It also retained GDP Growth Rate at 2.93 per cent as proposed.
Jibrin said the committee worked harmoniously with the Executive for the processing of the bill.
The breakdown
The Senate passed the budget with the breakdown as follows:
Statutory transfer – N560, 470, 827, 235
Debt service – N2, 725, 498, 930, 000
Recurrent expenditure – N4, 842,974,600,640
Capital expenditure – N2, 465,418,006,955
Fiscal Deficit – N2.28 trillion
Deficit/GDP – N1.52 per cent
Jibrin explained that the increase allows for intervention in critical areas like security, infrastructure, mines and steel development, social development, among others.
This, he said, is in line with the budget thrust of the government “which is focused on growing development and sustainable growth.”
He also said the committee adopted the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) as approved by the National Assembly.
With premium Times report
