To fund the budget, fresh loans would be collected while exploring public-private partnership arrangements
The Ministries of Works, Finance, Education and Defence and others, got the lion’s share of the N8.7tn capital component of the N27.5tn 2024 budget as contained in sectoral allocation details released by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Solomon Adeola, on Friday.
According to Adeola, the details of the budget have been released to allay the fears of the lawmakers and Nigerians.
He noted that the details had been circulated to allow lawmakers to study and see the allocations for various sectors.
In the proposed allocations, the Ministry of Works gets N521.3billion , followed by Federal Ministry of Finance with N519.9billion , while N308 2billion is earmarked for Ministry of Defence.
Similarly , Ministry of Health and Social Welfare gets N304.4billion while Ministry of Education gets N265.4billion.
Others are the Ministry of Power N264.2billion; Government-owned enterprises N820.9billion; TETFund N665billion; Housing and Urban Development N96.9billion; Water Resources N87.7billion and Police Atfairs N69billion .
The National Assembly, under statutory transfers gets N198billion , Niger Delta Development Commission N324.8billion, Universal Basic Education N251.4billion., National Judicial Council N165billion , North East Development Commission N126billion and Basic Health Care Provision Fund N125.7billion .
Zonal Intervention, otherwise called constituency projects for federal lawmakers, gets N100billion , Special Projects N108billion , contingency (capital) N200billion , Aid and Grants funded projects , N685.6billion , and the National Social Investment Programme Agency N100billion.
The Senate had earlier passed the N27.5tn ‘RenewHope’ Budget for a second reading.
The budget was passed on Friday after various deliberations by senators who applauded the President for his good intentions for the country.
The budget was passed and referred to the Committee on Appropriations after being put to a voice vote by the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the session.
President Bola Tinubu had on Wednesday presented to a joint session of the National Assembly the budget which he named, “Budget of Renewed Hope.”
The President pegged the budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year at N9.18 tn.
The president said the deficit represents 3.88 percent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product
Tinubu stated, “The N9.18 trillion deficit is lower than the “N13.78 trillion naira deficit recorded in 2023 which represents 6.11 percent of GDP.
“The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totaling N7.83tn, N298.49BN from Privatization Proceeds and 1.05 trillion naira drawdown on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects.”
He added that the administration will limit the inflation rate to 21.4 percent in 2024.
Adding that tax and fiscal policies are currently being reviewed.
The President said, “Our target is to increase the ratio of revenue to GDP from less than 10 percent currently to 18 percent within the term of this administration.”
To fund the budget, the president stated that fresh loans would be collected while exploring public-private partnership arrangements to finance critical infrastructure.
