The Senate on Wednesday passed the N21.8 trillion 2023 budget following the adoption of the report of itsCommittee on Appropriation.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Jibrin Barau said the members did a thorough job by examining inputs from its sub-committees before reaching the final figure.
“We hereby recommend that the Senate do consider and approve a bill for an Act to authorize the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CFR) of the Federation the total sum of N21.8 trillion,” he said at the presentation of the committee’s report.
“Of which N967 billion is for Statutory Transfers, N6.5 billion only is for debt service, N8.3 trillion is for recurrent (Non-Debt) expenditure, while N5.9 trillion is the contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending December 2023.”
The Senate raised the budget by N1.3 trillion from the N20.5 trillion submitted by the Executive arm of the government, after raising the oil price benchmark from $70 to $75 dollars.
The senators approved the exchange rate of N435.57 to the dollar.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said the passage of the budget was in line with the National Assembly’s pledge to support the January–December budget cycle.
