In a significant development, the Senate has given its nod to the 2024 budget during its third reading. The approved budget saw an increment of N1.2tn, soaring from the initial N27.5tn to the revised figure of N28.7tn.
The approval followed a voice vote conducted by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, after a thorough consideration of the Appropriation Bill report, presented by Senator Adeola Solomon, the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee.
Breaking down the budget details, the Senate outlined the Aggregate Expenditure at 28,777,404,073,861; Statutory Transfers at -1,742,786,788,150; Recurrent Expenditure at -8,768,533,030,852; Capital Expenditure at -9,995,143,298,028, and GDP at 3.88%.
Initially presented by President Bola Tinubu on November 29, the budget stood at N27.5tn, with a projected deficit of N9.18tn for the fiscal year 2024, representing 3.88% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Tinubu emphasized, “The N9.18 trillion deficit is lower than the N13.78 trillion naira deficit recorded in 2023, which represents 6.11% 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.”
This development comes after the Senate’s second reading approval on December 1, with the National Assembly working to finalize and pass the budget on Saturday.
