The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday approved the submission of a supplementary budget of over N2.1 trillion to the National Assembly for the fiscal year 2023 amid rising public governance expenditure obligations.
The FEC approved the N2.176 trillion for presentation to the Legislature during its weekly meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
The Minister of Budget and Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, who made this disclosure during a post -FEC meeting chat with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja explained: “The council considered a request for supplementary appropriation which is a second for 2023.
“And graciously approved the sum of N2,176,791,286,033, as supplementary budget and this supplementary budget is to fund urgent issues including N605 billion for national defence and security.
”This is to sustain the gains made in security and to accelerate and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out”, he added.
The minister also confirmed that the council also approved the sum of N300 billion to be earmarked for the rehabilitation of Eko and Third Mainland bridges and for the rehabilitation, and maintenance of various roads nationwide.
He said the council approved N200 billion for the provision of seed, agricultural input, supplies and agricultural implements and infrastructure to support expansion of production.
Bagudu clarified: “Equally the sum of N210 billion is provided for the payment of wage Awards. In negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress.
“The Federal Government agreed to pay N35,000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the federal government for September , October, November and December.
”And that amounts to about N210 billion which has been approved and also N400 billion as Cash Transfer payments”, Bagudu stressed.
Similarly, he hinted that the FEC also approved the provision of the sum of N5.5 billion for the takeover of the student loans board and N8 billion for the take-off grant of new ministries.
In addition, the minister said that the sum of N200 billion was provided as capital supplementation to deal with urgent requests that have been made to President Bola Tinubu from various parts of the country.
It would be recalled that the FEC had penultimate week proposed a budget of N26 trillion for the year 2024 for presentation by the President to the National Assembly before the end of this year
If the National Assembly approves the proposed supplementary budget, the budget for the fiscal year will increase to almost N28 trillion, with substantial part of it being funded through sundry debt instruments in form of borrowing.
