By Seyi Babalola
The Senate on Saturday passed the 2024 budget. The upper legislative chamber pegged the benchmark of oil price at $77.96 per barrel of crude oil to reflect the current market values of the product in the international market.
The federal lawmakers approved the oil production rate of 1.78 million barrels per day and the exchange rate of N800 to a US dollar.
The GDP growth rate was pegged at 3.88 per cent and the budget deficit was approved at N9.18 trillion.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the passage of the budget after the majority of the lawmakers supported it through a voice vote.
The budget was passed after considering a report presented by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Ogun West).
Senator Olamilekan, while presenting the report, recommended that N1.7 trillion be approved for Statutory Transfers and N8 2 trillion be approved for Debt service.
The committee chairman also recommended that N8.7 trillion be approved as recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N9.9 trillion be approved as capital expenditure.
The lawmaker explained that the increase in the appropriation was as a result of a request for additional funding of items which were not listed in the Appropriation Bill as submitted by President Tinubu.
He said the joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation observed inadequate funding in the budgetary allocation of some Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.
The breakdown of budget as approved by the Senate is as follows;
Aggregate Expenditure -N28,777,404,073,861
Statutory Transfers -N1,742,786,788,150
Recurrent Expenditure – N8,768,513,380,852
Capital Expenditure – N9,995,143,298,028
GDP – 3.88 %
