National Assembly Passes ₦21.8trn 2023 Budget
The National Assembly has passed the 2023 appropriation bill at ₦21.83 trillion.
This shows an increase of N1.32 trillion from the ₦20.51 trillion budget proposal of President Muhammadu Buhari.
A breakdown of the budget indicates an allocation of ₦967.5 billion for statutory transfers, ₦6.6 trillion for debt servicing, ₦8.3 trillion for recurrent expenditure, and ₦5.9 trillion for capital expenditure.
The 2023 Appropriation Bill was deferred last week over what the Senate President described as problems discovered in it. As the 9th National Assembly passed its final appropriation bill hopeful of maintaining the January-to-December budget cycle, Senate President Ahmad Lawan had a word for the executive arm.
“I want to take this opportunity to ask the executive arm of government to implement the 2022 Appropriation Act. We have also passed the Supplementary Budget for 2022. We expect total implementation – no selective implementation,” he said.
The 2023 budget of ₦21.83 trillion maintained the recurrent expenditure at approximately ₦8.27 trillion, while capital expenditure increased from ₦5.35 trillion to N5.9 trillion and debt servicing also increased from ₦6.31 trillion to N6.6 trillion.
Some key capital allocations include the ₦285 billion to the Federal Ministry of Defence, ₦134.9 billion to the Federal Ministry of Health, ₦195.5 billion to the Federal Ministry of Power and ₦153.7 billion to the Federal Ministry of Education.
The House of Representatives had helped resolve the eight-month strike by university lecturers earlier this year by making commitments to improve their welfare packages and make available revitalisation funds to improve the infrastructure and operations of federal universities.
The Tertiary Institutions Revitalisation Fund of ₦300 billion and salary renegotiation of ₦170 billion have been captured in the 2023 Appropriation Bill, while ₦10.2 billion has also been provided for the universities’ pension, including arrears.
Buhari has three days to sign the 2023 budget to maintain the January 1st to December 31st budget cycle reintroduced by the 9th Assembly.
Earlier, lawmakers attended to the request for the implementation of the 2022 budget, which they extended from December 31st, 2022 to March 31st, 2023. The purpose of the extension, according to them, is to ensure the implementation of key capital projects in the Act which have yet to be funded.
Both chambers went on to pass the 2022 Supplementary Budget of ₦819.5 billion as requested by Buhari.
According to the upper chamber, the amendment of the 2022 Appropriation Act is to ensure the implementation of the key capital project in the Act which has not been funded at this time.
The upper chamber said it is expedient that the capital projects be extended to prevent the problem of abandoning projects in the budget.
The supplementary budget is to address food security following devastating floods across the country as well as damages to road infrastructure and the water sector.
A breakdown of the supplementary budget in the report by the Committee of Finance shows that the Ministry of Agriculture is to get ₦69 billion, the Ministry of Water Resources – ₦15.5 billion, the FCT – ₦30 billion, the Ministry of Works and Housing – ₦704 billion.
The House of Representatives has passed the Year 2023 estimates with an adjustment of the total from ₦20.51 trillion presented before it by President Muhammadu Buhari to ₦21.83 trillion, an increase of ₦1.32 trillion.
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