The National Assembly (NASS) will meet in joint session today (Wednesday) to hear President Bola Tinubu’s presentation of the N27.5 trillion 2024 budget projections.
This is the first time the President has presented the budget to the legislature since taking office on May 29, 2023.
The President’s request to bring the budget before a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives was approved by the upper chamber on Tuesday.
In a letter dated November 27, 2023, Ali Umoru, the Secretary of Research and Information at NASS, also declared that the President will address the parliament today.
The 2024–2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which the President sent to both chambers of the National Assembly approximately three weeks ago, suggested N26.1trn as the total expenditure profile for the 2024 fiscal year.
Monday’s budget was updated to N27.5 trillion from N1.5 trillion when the naira exchange rate dropped and the benchmark oil price was raised.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) updated the MTEF and the Fiscal Policy to utilise an exchange rate of N750 to $1 and a benchmark crude oil reference price of $77.96 per barrel, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Abubakar Bagudu told reporters at the State House on Monday.
Bagudu claims that the FEC also passed an Appropriations Bill for 2024 that calls for spending N27.5 trillion in total—a sum that is more than N1.5 trillion more than first projected.
The N27.5 trillion budget is 26% more than the 2023 budget that former President Muhammadu Buhari announced in 2022.
In the meantime, the President wrote to NASS to request approval of an external borrowing plan worth $8.6 billion and €100 million for vital infrastructure, including power, roads, water, railroads, and healthcare.
