Why we increased 2024 budget by N1.2trn — Reps

The Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi, said the increment of the N26.5trn 2024 budget by N1.2trn was due to revenue prospects from Government Owned Enterprises and possible inflation.

Addressing journalists at the National Assembly Complex on Saturday shortly after the passage of the 2024 budget estimates, Bichi said, “We have inflation and exchange rate for the dollar, the executive proposed N750 to the dollar, but after we studied carefully, we look at it and we know it is unrealistic.

“So we increased it to N800. And also we had a meeting with Government-Owned Enterprises and we believe that their submissions are not enough. They have agreed to increase their revenue to N700bn. That was how we are able to get that N1.2 trillion, which we applied to capital.

“This is the first time the capital is bigger than recurrent. We appropriated about N850bn to education. We gave them a lot of money. I believe this budget is brilliant and Nigerians will see a lot of impacts.”

The PUNCH reports that the Senate passed the 2024 budget for a third reading on Saturday (today) and also increased the bill by  N1.2tn, moving the budget from N27.5tn to N28.7tn.

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, November 29, presented a total of N27.5tn to a joint section of the National Assembly.

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