The National Assembly had passed N17.12 trillion as the 2022 budget, but it was later revised to N17.31 trillion on Buhari’s request.
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – The Senate on Wednesday, December 28 passed a supplementary budget of N819 billion for the 2022 fiscal year.
This is sequel to the extension of the implementation of the 2022 budget to March 31, 2023 by the Legislature.
The National Assembly had passed N17.12 trillion as the 2022 budget, but it was later revised to N17.31 trillion on President Muhammadu Buhari’s request. He had cited the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war on the country’s economy as the reason for the adjustment.
Sen. Jibrin Barau, Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, presented the report on the Supplementary Budget at plenary.
The Senator said the funds were meant to cushion the effects of recent floods across the country and finish up some projects that have reached 85 percent completion.
In a request for the Supplementary Budget approval, the President said it would be financed through additional domestic borrowings and this would raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion and the deficit GDP ratio to 4.43 percent.
He wrote: “The year 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history which has caused massive destruction to farmlands at the point close to harvest season. This may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country,” the president had said.
“The flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT, [and] has affected sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to the movement of goods and services.
“The water sector was also affected by the flood and there is a need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have achieved about 85 project completion.”