From Fred Itua and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The National Assembly, yesterday, approved N13.588 trillion for Nigeria’s 2021 Budget. Of the figure, the sum of N496.528 billion was approved for statutory transfer.
The Senate and the House of Representatives also approved the N3.324 trillion for debt servicing in a budget that provided N4.125 trillion for capital expenditure and N5.641 trillion as recurrent expenditure.
The budget as passed is predicated on $40 United States per barrel for crude oil benchmark, with oil production at 1.86 million barrels per day (mbpd).
For the 2021 Budget, the lawmakers had also put the official exchange rate on at N379 to one United States dollar, with the Senate explaining it had also approved N5.196 trillion as deficit for the appropriation bill.
According to the Red Chamber, the deficit will be financed by some multilateral and bilateral project-tied loans worth N709 billion. Also yesterday, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said the National Assembly had foreclosed additional loan request from the Executive to extend the capital implementation of the 2020 budget.
Lawan stated this in his remark after the Upper Chamber passed a N13.58 trillion budget for the 2021 fiscal year.
According to him, the National Assembly’s approval granting extension for implementation of the capital component of the 2020 budget last week, should therefore be fully utilised by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government.
He added that the extension of capital implementation of the 2020 budget till March 31, 2021; alongside the implementation of the 2021 budget starting in January 2021, would guarantee sufficient injection of funds into Nigeria’s economy.
He said: “For Nigerians, this budget that has been passed in the National Assembly today, is to ensure that the economy is supported fully through public expenditure, because it depends largely on public expenditure.
“The budget extension period for implementation of the 2020 budget, which we did last year, is to ensure that the funds that are available for 2020 are not lost.
“So, there will be two budgets running; funds from January 1, 2021, up to March 31, 2021; and then the implementation of the 2021 budget itself to start from January. That is absolute fight against the recession we are suffering at the moment.