2020 budget: Senate passed N10.59 trillion Naira as against the N10.33 trillion naira.
By Ihegazie Hope Chidinma
The Nigerian Senate has passed the 2020 Budget of N10.59 trillion Naira as against the N10.33 trillion naira presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly on October 8, 2019.
This followed the adoption of the report of Senate Committee on Appropriation at Thursday’s plenary.
Presenting the report, Senator Barau Jibrin said the increased of N260bn allowed for interventions in critical areas such as national security, road infrastructure mines and steel development, health among others.
Senator Jubrin said the Statutory Transfer stood at N560.5bn, Recurrent Expenditure-N4.8bn, Capital Expenditure-N2.5bn, Debt Servicing-N2.7bn, Fiscal Deficit-N2.3trn and Deficit to GDP of 1.52 per cent.
He pointed out that Daily Oil Production stood at 2.18 million barrels per day, Oil Benchmark stood at $57 per barrel against $55 proposed by the Executive, while the Exchange Rate stood at N305 per dollar.
Other lawmakers who spoke on the reason for the increment of the budget with two hundred and sixty billion naira hinged their reason on the increasing insecurity and the need to tackle it.
In his remarks,Senate President, Ahmad Lawan noted with passage of three main bill of Public Procurement, Finance bill and Appropriation bill for 2020, executive is at good position to ensure robust implementation of the 2020 budget to its fullest and the benefit of all Nigerians.
