The National Assembly yesterday approved the addition of N6.2trillion to the 2024 budget.
Following the development, the 2024 budget which was originally N28.777 trillion is now N35.055 trillion.
The approval to add the N6.2 trillion to the 2024 budget followed the consideration of the reports of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriation that considered the request.
President Bola Tinubu had urged the National Assembly to consider and approve the N6.2 trillion as addition to the 2024 budget
Chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola and his counterpart in the House, Hon. Abubakar Bichi, presented the reports for consideration.
Both the House and the Senate approve the N6.2trillion as requested by Tinubu in a bill.
The Bill was entitled: "Appropriation Act (Amendment Bill) 2024."
The bill as passed authorised the issuance of N35,055,536,770,218 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
Out of this cash, N1.742 trillion was allocated for Statutory Transfers, N8.270 trillion for Debt Service, N11.268 trillion for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure, and N13.773 trillion for the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending December 31, 2024.
The bill was transmitted to the parliament on July 17th 2024, by President Tinubu.
Bill sought for an Act to amend the Appropriation Act, 2024 to provide N6,222,595,926,139 only out of which N3,222,595,926,139.00 is for Capital Expenditure and N3,000,000,000,000 only for Recurrent Expenditure.
The Bill was read the first and second time and referred to the Committee on Appropriations for further legislative action.
Adeola in his presentation, urged the Senate to recall that the 2024 Appropriation Bill was passed into law by the National Assembly in the sum of N28,777,404,073,861 and was subsequently assented to by the President on January 1, 2024.
According to him, the 2024 Appropriation Act (Amendment) Bill seeks to among others, make available additional funds for Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Projects, to be undertaken across the country and to meet other recurrent expenditure requirements, such as the minimum wage increase necessary for effective governance of the Federation.
He said the Committee processed the Bill together with its House counterpart, in line with relevant rules of legislative practice and procedures.
"I therefore, present this harmonized report on the Amendment Bill, 2024 for consideration and passage of the Senate," Adeola said.
The Committee observed that there was: "The need to provide the government equity component of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Projects and other critical projects to be undertaken across the country and other recurrent expenditure requirements, like the provision for the new minimum wage, among others, which necessitated the request for the Amendment of the 2024 Appropriation Act."
According to him, the additional expenditure contained in the Amendment Bill will be financed by the one-time windfall tax on banks' foreign exchange profits for the year 2023 as approved by the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The Senate and the House passed the amendment, adjourned briefly and later adopted their votes and proceedings for the day to make it seamless for the Bill to be transmitted and assented to by Tinubu.
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