The President of the Senate, Goodwill Akpabio on Monday said that the increase in the 2024 Budget by the National Assembly from N27.5 trillion to N28.78 trillion is verifiably justified.
The Senate President also said that the National Assembly will be working closely with the executive to monitor the budget implementation.
Speaking to State House correspondents, after the signing of the 2024 Appropriation Bill into law by President Bola Tinubu, the Senate President said the slight increase in the budget, was to take care of human capital development, and take care of the needs of Nigerians, particularly the school feeding and the security situation in the country.
Asked how the exercise went, he said, “It went very well. Happy New Year. To all of you, all Nigerians, myself, the speaker, the leadership of the appropriations committees and of the Senate just finished witnessing the historic signing of the 2024 budget into law by Mr. President.
“Yes, he commended the hard work of the National Assembly for the expeditious manner in which the budget was treated.
“He also noted the slight increase in the budget, which was to take care of human capital development, and take care of the needs of Nigerians, particularly the school feeding the security situation in the country and all that and he was happy.
“Yes, the budget moved from 27 trillion to about 28 point something trillion with very verifiable justifications.
“And we are excited that we are all working in one accord and Nigerians will benefit. So we have returned the country to the January to December budget cycle first to 31st of December.
“And myself and the Honourable Speaker we are very excited sacrifice for national development, that even though today’s a public holiday, we commend the President for taking time out to return from his break for the yuletide period to come. down and do this all important national assignment, we are sure that with what we have done Nigerians will be the beneficiaries”.
He said the leadership of the National Assembly has already enjoined all the committees to get to work.
He explained, “And that means the President has also pointed out that it’s good to have a monthly report from the ministers or the MDAs and any agency, any head of any agency or any minister found wanting to have to find his way out of his administration.
Israel army warns Gaza war will continue throughout 2024
“With that directly from the President. Ours is to ensure that we make sure that we monitor what goes on to ensure that yes, indeed, it is one thing to do a budget, it is another thing for the budget to be fully implemented.”
He said that the two chambers had to do a joint sitting collaboratively to ensure that the budget is passed on time.
He said “We will make sure that if there is need that we also undertake joint monitoring of the implementation of the budget to ensure that nobody can tell us one thing in the green chambers or another thing in the red chambers.
Also speaking, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, explained that “ the President signed two other bills. The first one is the supplementary appropriation bill of 2023, which he has agreed to extend by 90 days. So, it will continue to work concurrently with the 2024 budget up to March 31.
“He has also approved the 2023 main budget to concurrently operate with the capital component of the 2024 budget up to March 31, 2024.
“Another landmark achievement we had was also approving the securitisation of the ways and means that have effectively brought to an end these controversial means and ways of borrowing money. And he has assured Nigerians that this will be the last of this kind of ugly incident.” the Speaker added.
Asked what next after the signing of the budget, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun said, “Next is implementation.
“The N28.78 trillion budget has been signed into law by Mr. President so it’s immediate implementation and it’s a very hopeful budget, one that will really inspire Nigerians and encourage them to really… those who are investors to come out and invest and even those who rely on government, such as school children and the education sector, they have a lot to benefit.
“But overall, the change in this budget is that it is focused on growing the economy. The capital expenditure is larger than the recurrent expenditure; over N10 trillion is going to be the capital expenditure, while recurrent is just about N8.8 trillion. I think that shows the direction of travel, it shows that we can expect an economy rejuvenated, re-galvanized and set for growth.”
Asked how optimistic he was that there will be the finances to meet the budget, he said, “The first thing to say is that it’s a lower budget deficit, so it’s a lower financing requirement and in fact, as a percentage of GDP, the budget deficit is down from 6.1% to 3.8%. So we’re relying less on borrowing and more on revenue and I think you have to take the two together. I think we’re very optimistic about the improvements in revenue that will take place
“We are all ready, even from tomorrow, applying technology and the digitalization to ensure that the revenue that should come to government from all sources, including from government-owned enterprises, comes into the consolidated revenue fund and on the other side.
“We are bringing order to government borrowing, so Ways and Means is being eliminated by taking the funding that is required from the market, as opposed to from printing of money by Central Bank.
“That, in a nutshell, is what is happening on the financing side. We are very optimistic that not only will this budget be funded adequately, but it will be funded on a timely basis as well.”
Fielding questions on how the budget will impact the economy, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu said, “First, this is a budget that has been developed, that came out of recognition of all the planning tools that are available and are our priorities, the Renewed Hope Agenda, the eight priority areas of Mr. President, and the clarity by Mr. President, that budgeting should reflect our priorities and should be implemented.
“Mr. President captured it today in his speech, this budget is not only what it is, in terms of ambition, and in terms of reducing deficit, increasing capital expenditure and reducing recurrent deficit, it’s going to be implemented.
“He was very clear with the warning to all ministries, departments and agencies that everyone will earn his own pay, in terms of generating revenue and implementing the budget as passed into law. So this is a game changer.
“Equally, to follow up from where the Coordinating Minister left it, is to acknowledge that this is a budget that has increased spending in our priority areas; Human Capital Development, Education, Health and Infrastructure, from Works, Power, Housing, Water Resources, as well as Innovation, Digital Economy, Creative Economy, Science and Technology. Humanitarian spending has also gone up.
“So this is a budget that has increased spending in all priority areas. Between the MDAs and the statutory transfers, we are spending close to N11.4 trillion as capital expenditure, which is about 39% of the budget itself. I think this is almost the first, in a very long time in our history.
“Equally, Mr. President said it, today one of the things that gave him pleasure was that this budget even provided N100 billion to provide school feeding for children so that it can support the programme we inherited, the homegrown school feeding, but expand on it and address the nutritional deficiencies that are commonplace.
“So it’s a very well thought-out budget, with priorities quite well spelled out and as the Coordinating Minister said, for us it is implementable because we are going to hold everyone to account. Mr President concluded his speech by giving very clear directives to all the institutional delivery mechanisms to ensure that the budget is implemented.”