Nigerian Senate passes 2021 Appropriation Bill
Senate’s passage of the Bill, on Tuesday, is sequel to the consideration of the report of its committee on Appropriations as presented by its chairman Senator Jubril Barau.
Mr Jibrin further said in view of the increasing global oil prices beyond the benchmark of $40, the executive may wish to submit a supplementary Appropriation Bill whenever it deems fit in order to fund critical areas that will help bring the nation out of its current state of recession.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, thanked his colleagues and the executive for the cooperation as he admonished the latter to ensure the full and effective implementation of the budget of the budget.
He also urged Nigerians to pay attention to the work that the lawmakers are doing and recognise their sacrifices to ensure that the nation comes out of recession.
Before the passage, a statement from the Red Chamber hinted of what was to be expected when, on Monday, it said it had agreed to pass the appropriation bill of N13.588 trillion, which is N505 billion higher than the proposed N13.082 trillion Buhari presented to the Senate in October for 2021 budget.
Senator Barau Jibrin had moved that the Senate receives and considers the report of the Committee on Appropriations of the 2021 Appropriation Bill, which was seconded by Senator Stella Oduah, who said: “Our infrastructure decay has been on the increase. I am very much impressed with the way and how this Budget has addressed our problems. I want to support and to urge my dear colleagues that we pass this budget.”
Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, said the Senate worked hard to “meet the deadline of passing the 2021 Budget before we go on Christmas break.”
The 2021 budget passed by the Senate is an increase of 31.9% from the approved N10.3 trillion FGN budget for 2020.
The parameters and fiscal assumptions underpinning the 2021 appropriation bill include: Benchmark oil price of 40 US Dollars per barrel, Daily oil production estimate of 1.86 million barrels (inclusive of Condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day), Exchange rate of N379 per US Dollar, GDP growth projected at 3.0 percent and Inflation closing at 11.95 percent.
Breakdown of passed budget
The Senate passed the budget with the breakdown as follows:
Statutory transfer – N496,528,471,273
Debt service – N3,324,380,000,000
Recurrent expenditure – N5,641,970,060,680
Capital expenditure – N4,125,149,354,222
While Fiscal Deficit was put at N5.2 trillion (5,196,007,992,292)
Details later…
