The Ministry of Works as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security received the highest capital budgetary allocations in the 2024 Appropriation bill passed on Saturday by the National Assembly.
Barring last-minute changes, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to sign the N28.777 trillion Appropriation bill to law on Monday, 1st January, 2024 to maintain the January – December budget cycle.
Breakdown of the budgetary allocations showed that Ministry of Works gets N892.461 billion, followed by Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security with N857.148 billion; Ministry of Health and Social Welfare gets N485.557 billion; Ministry of Finance gets N463.070 billion while Ministry of Education gets N417.579 billion for the year ending 31st December, 2024.
Further breakdown showed that the sum of N339.287 billion is for Ministry of Defence; N309.356 billion is for Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology; N241.252 billion is for Water Resources & Sanitation; N166.113 billion is for Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment; N165.843 billion is for Housing & Urban Development; N146.888 billion is for Ministry of Power; N121.224 billion is for Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs & Poverty Alleviation; while N91.175 billion is for Ministry of Transportation.
From the N1.052 trillion approved for capital funding from additional revenue from the Multilateral and Bilateral loans, Ministry of Finance gets the highest allocation of N353.950 billion followed by Ministry of Ministry of Power with N264.266 billion; Ministry of Works gets N94.829 billion; Ministry of Education gets N63.202 billion; Ministry of Health & Social Welfare gets N57.393 billion; Ministry of Interior gets N52.500 billion while Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) gets N48.153 billion, respectively.
Recall that the sum of N28.777 trillion approved by the Senate and House of Representatives was N1.2 trillion higher than the N27.504 trillion presented by President Tinubu during the joint session of the National Assembly on the 29th November, 2023.
Further analysis of the 2024 Appropriation budget passed by both Chambers showed that National Assembly adopted $77.96 per barrel as crude oil benchmark prices; 1.78mbpd as crude oil production; 3.88% GDP Growth Rate and N9.18 trillion budget deficit as proposed by the Executive.
The lawmakers however adopted N800/US$1 as Exchange Rate against N750/1US$ proposed by the Executive.
The sum of N1.743 trillion is for Statutory Transfers; N8.271 trillion is for Debt Service; N8.769 trillion is for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure while N9.995 trillion is for Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31st December, 2024.
The N9.179 trillion fiscal deficit for the year under review, is to be financed through Asset sales/privatisation – N298,486,421,740; Multilateral/Bilateral Project -Tied Loans – N1,051,914,486,314 and Debt Financing – N7,828,529,477,860.
For the total Debt Service of N8.271 trillion approved for the year 2024, the sum of N5.300 trillion is to be incurred through Domestic Debts – including Ways and Means; N2.748 trillion through Foreign Debts while the Sinking Fund for the retirement of maturing Promissory Notes stands at N223.662 billion.
Under the Statutory Transfer, National Judicial Council (NJC) got the highest allocation of N341.626 billion; followed by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) with N338.925 billion; Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) gets N263.044 billion; North East Development Commission (NEDC) – N131.836 billion; Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHPF) – N131.522 billion; National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) – N131.522 billion; Public Complaint Commission (PPC) – N14.460 billion; and N5 billion for National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), respectively.
Breakdown of the National Assembly budget showed that the sums of N78.624 billion is for House of Representatives; N49.145 billion is for Senate; N36.727 billion for National Assembly Office; N30.807 billion for General Services; N20.388 billion for Legislative Aides; N15.189 billion for Service Wide Vote; N15 billion for National Assembly Hospital Project; N12.326 for National Assembly Service Commission (NASC); N12.123 billion for National Assembly Library Complex (Take-off Grant); N10 billion for ongoing construction of NASC headquarters; N9.008 billion for National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS); N4.500 billion for completion of ongoing NILDS building; N4 billion for National Assembly Recreation Centre; N4 billion for Design, construction, furnishing and equipping of NASS Budget & Research Office (NABRO); N3 billion for procurement of books for NASS Library; N3 billion Senate Car Park; N3 billion for House of Representatives Car Park; N3 billion for upgrade of NASS key infrastructure; N3 billion for Design, construction, furnishing and equipping of NASS ultramodern printing press; N2.700 billion for furnishing of Committee meeting rooms & others offices within Senate building; N3 billion for furnishing of Committee meeting rooms for House of Representatives Part I & II); N2.500 billion for NASS Pension Board (Take-off Grant); N1.230 billion for Office of Retired Clerks & Permanent Secretaries; N1 billion for Constitution Review; N130 million for Public Accounts Committee (Senate); N150 million for Public Accounts Committee (House); N200 million for Senate Appropriation Committee and N200 million for House of Representatives’ Appropriation Committee, respectively.
From the total sum of N50.451 trillion approved for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure, Ministry of Defence got the highest allocation of N1.308 trillion, followed by Ministry of Police Affairs – N869.121 billion; Ministry of Education – N857.134 billion; Ministry of Health & Social Welfare – N667.577 billion; Ministry of Interior – N362.552 billion; Ministry of Youth – N201.467 billion; National Security Adviser (NSA) – N199.763 billion; Ministry of Foreign Affairs – N140.456 billion; Ministry of Agriculture & Food Security – N110.248 billion; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) – N100.248 billion and Presidency – N97.913 billion.
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