President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is set to present the 2024 Appropriation Bill before the joint session of the national assembly on Wednesday, 29th November, 2023. This follows yesterday’s approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of the 2024 appropriation bill of N27.50 trillion, which is a N1.5 trillion increase from the earlier estimated bill.
The federal government had proposed N26.2 trillion in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) but reviewed the MTEF after it was recently approved by the National Assembly.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, while explaining the rationale behind the slight adjustments said that the new budget proposal was legitimate because the appropriation was dependent on the final process that could be changed due to many variables including new priorities and MDA presentations.
Bagudu said the MTEF that was approved by the National Assembly put the exchange rate at N700 per dollar and an oil price benchmark of 73.96 dollars. However, FEC revised the MTEF to use an exchange rate of N750 to a dollar and oil price benchmark of N77.96 in order to further fund the eight priority areas of the administration.
The Minister told reporters after the FEC meeting that the president would give more breakdown of the budget during the budget presentation to the National Assembly. He added that the 2024 proposed revenue would now be N18.32 trillion higher than the 2023 budget and the supplementary budget’s provisions.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, on his part revealed that the federal government has secured a $1 billion funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for budget support.
He said that the one billion dollar funds would aid the effective implementation of the government reform policies as well as ensure transparency and accountability in the various tax reforms.
Mr Edun added that it would be used in areas such as power and ensuring the efficient utilisation of tax revenues, adding that it was not for project funding.