Following the receipt of a letter from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeking the consideration and approval of the proposed N2,176 trillion 2023 Supplementary budget, the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the supplementary budget for a second reading while also presenting the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework & Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) to the House.
The 2023 Supplementary budget Bill was titled: “A Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N2,176,791 286,033 (two trillion, one hundred and seventy-six billion, seven hundred and ninety-one million, two hundred and eighty-six thousand, thirty-three naira) only, of which #3 18,0000,000,000 (eighteen billion naira) only is for Statutory Transfers, N992,802,015,985 (nine hundred and ninety-two billion, eight hundred and two million, fifteen thousand, nine hundred and eighty-five naira) only is for Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while the sum of 8 1,165,989,270,049} (one trillion, one hundred and sixty-five billion, nine hundred and eighty-nine million, two hundred and seventy thousand, forty-nine naira) only is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on 31 December 2023 (HB. 765) — Second Reading”.
The Bill was presented for a second reading by the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, and passed by the House for a second reading after a voice vote put by the Speaker, Abbas Tajuddeen.
The Informant247 on Monday reported that an N2.18tn supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year to cover additional spending in defence, works as well as welfare packages such as wage awards and conditional cash transfers agreed with the Organised Labour, was approved by the Federal Government.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, made this known to newsmen at the end of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Villa, said the budget is to “fund urgent issues including national defence and security.”
Bagudu said, “N605bn for national defence and security is to sustain the gains made in security and to accelerate, and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out.
“Equally a sum of N300bn was provided to repair bridges, including Eko and Third Mainland Bridges, as well as construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.
”Equally. the sum of N210bn was provided for the payment of wage awards. In negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Federal Government agreed to pay N35,000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the Federal Government and that amounts from September, October, November and December 2023.
“Also, N400bn as cash transfer payments. You may recall that the Federal Government secured a $800m loan from the World Bank to pay cash transfers of N25,000 to 15 million households. The $800 million is for two months, October and November. The President graciously approved that the federal government should fund an additional month, which is what this N100bn is for.”
The council also approved N200bn for seed, agricultural input, supplies and agricultural implements and infrastructure to support the expansion of production, while N100bn was okayed for the Federal Capital Territory for urgent and immediate capital expenditure infrastructure works.
Meanwhile, N18bn was provided for the Independent National Electoral Commission for the conduct of the Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo elections; N5.5bn for the funding of the take-off of the student loans board, which begins loan disbursement in January 2024.
The supplementary budget also includes N8bn for the take-off grant of new ministries and N200bn for capital supplementation to deal with urgent requests made to the President from various parts of the country.