President Bola Tinubu has wrote to the national assembly seeking an amendment to the 2024 Appropriation Act. The president has requested that the national assembly increase the 2024 appropriation act by N6.2 trillion.
The request from the President was contained in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday.
If the 2024 appropriation act is amended by the lawmakers as requested by the president, it would mean that the 2024 budget would increase to N34.9 trillion from the initial N28.7 trillion that was passed by national assembly in December 2023 and signed into law by President Tinubu on January 1, 2024.
The additional N6.2trn funding sought by the president in the amendment to the budget is to provide N3.2 trillion for infrastructure projects and N3 trillion for recurrent expenditure.
“Pursuant to section 58 (2) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended, I forward herewith the above named bills for consideration and passage by the senate”, President Tinubu wrote in the letter.
“The appropriation act amendment bill seeks to amend the principal act to provide the sum of N3,200,000,000,000 for Renewed Hope Infrastructure Projects and other critical infrastructure projects to be undertaken across the country and the sum of N3,000,000,000,000 to meet further recurrent expenditure requirements necessary for the proper operation of the federal government.
“They shall be funded by revenue accruing to the federal government of Nigeria”, he added.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government had announced its intention to increase the 2024 budget to accommodate the anticipated increase in the federal government’s wage bill once a new national minimum wage and the necessary consequential wage adjustments are in place.
From the increase sought, it is also evident that President Tinubu is seeking budgetary provisions to fund many infrastructural projects currently being undertaken by the across the country including the gigantic Lagos-Calabar coastal road and the planned Sokoto-Badagry highway.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris who announced this at end of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Tuesday had revealed that the supplementary budget would be by way of an amendment to the 2024 Appropriation Act and not entirely a new supplementary budget document.
Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, the 2024 Appropriation Act amendment bill scaled second reading after the House Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, introduced the bill on the floor of the green chamber on Wednesday.