THE Senate, today, passed the supplementary budget submitted to both chambers of the National Assembly two weeks ago by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari had proposed N895.842,465,917bn, but the Senate Committee on Appropriation, in its report presented by the Chairman, Barau Jibrin, increased the budget size to N982,729,695,343.
The breakdown showed that N123,332,174,164 is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, while the sum of N859, 397,521,179 is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2021.
Buhari had explained that the proposed amount would be used to fund the Covid-19 vaccine programme and health-related expenditures for treatment of additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Programme in states.
He had also said that part of the money would be used to procure additional equipment captured in this year’s capital expenditure on Defence and Security to tackle prevalent security challenges across the country.
The Upper Chamber had earlier given approval to Buhari’s request to borrow N2,343,387,942,848, to part finance the 2021 federal budget size of N13trn.
The Senate resolution following the approval of its Committee on Local and Foreign Loans as presented by the Chairman, Clifford Ordia.
The Committee recommended that the Senate approves Buhari’s request for the issuance of $3,000,000,000 but not more than $6,183,081,643.40,Eurobond in the International Capital Market.
The External Borrowing of N2,343,387,942,848, according to the panel, should be for the financing of part of the deficit authorised in the 2021 Appropriation Act.
The Committee also recommended that the Senate should approve that the amount authorised may be raised from multiple sources such as the International Capital Market and any other Multilateral or Bilateral sources as may be available.
It also recommended that the Senate directs the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Director General of the Debt Management Office and the Governor the Central Bank of Nigeria to submit to the National Assembly within 10 working days (excluding the day of close of trading) a letter containing the United State Dollars amount so raised and received as a result of the above approval together with the applicable exchange rate.
