Nigeria’s legislative arm, the National Assembly, passed the country’s 2024 appropriation bill on Saturday, raising the budget from N27.5 trillion ($30.5 billion) proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion ($31.9 billion). The budget size was increased by N1.2 trillion ($1.3 billion).
Tinubu, on November 29, presented his first full-year budget proposal to the National Assembly for approval. Dubbed ‘The Budget of Renewed Hope’, after his campaign slogan during the 2023 election, Tinubu said the budget “constitutes the foundation upon which we shall erect the future of this great nation.”
The Senate said the difference of N1.2 trillion arose because several government-run agencies have a positive outlook for 2024, promising to increase their revenues to pay for what some call a bloated budget. The legislature also trashed Tinubu’s naira–USD rate of N750/$1 and adopted a more realistic N800/$1 rate for the 2024 fiscal year.
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
