The Senate has passed the 2024 Budget, pegging oil benchmark price at $77.96 per barrel of crude oil to reflect the current market values of the product in the international market.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly passed the 2024 Budget during the plenary held today (Saturday).
The federal lawmakers also approved oil production rate of 1.78 million barrels per day and 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.
President of the Senate, Senator 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 the 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 Senate 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 federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
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 per cent.
