The House of Representatives yesterday passed the 2022 appropriation bill in the value of N17, 126, 874, 917, 693.
The figure is about N736 billion higher than the N16,391,023,917,692 submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari in October.
The House also passed a resolution to extend the implementation of the 2021 budget for another 90 days.
The resolution allows for the concurrent implementation of 2021 and 2022 budgets within the period.
A breakdown of the budget showed that statutory transfer is to gulp N869.667 billion, with a recurrent expenditure of N6.910 trillion, capital expenditure of N5.467 trillion and debt services of N3.870 trillion for the year 2022.
The House also approved 1.88mbpd as daily oil production, $62 oil benchmark price, N410/$ exchange rate, 4.2 per cent GDP growth rate and 13 per cent inflation rate for the 2022 fiscal year.
The House also approved an increase in the oil price benchmark from $57 to $62, even as it increased the deficit by N98 billion to accommodate some other requests of national importance not provided for in the budget estimates which could not be covered by the revenue increase.
Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon Mukhtar Betara, while presenting the report of his committee, noted that additional revenue would be allocated to the agencies that came forward with an additional report that was not captured in the budget.
Betera, while giving a synopsis of the Appropriation Bill, said the increase of the oil benchmark was done to reflect current realities in the international market.
“There was a special intervention as a result of the increased benchmark from the US$57 to the US$ 62”, he noted.
He added that the additional revenue was allocated to agencies in critical sectors to enable them meet their core mandate.
The lawmaker continued: “The additional revenue increase will be allocated to the agencies that came forward with an additional financial report which was not provided for in the budget.
“The agencies include Works and Housing, INEC (for 2023 General Elections), Defence, National Population Commission (NPC) – for 2022 Population Census, Agriculture and Rural Development, National Security Adviser (NSA), National Assembly (Constituency Outreach)Education, Humanitarian, Water Resources, etc, given that the requests will take care of critical infrastructural deficit for purposes of national development improvement and acceleration.”
“There was an increase in revenue to Government Owned Enterprises (GOES) and independent revenue of the MDAs by 400 Billion as a result of the independent report received from the investigation carried out on all Government agencies by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) and the various committees of the National Assembly, in their Oversight roles.
“The deficit was increased by N98 Billion to accommodate some other requests of National importance not provided for in the budget estimates and which could not be covered by the revenue increase”.
Betara further said there was need “for stimulation of the economy through increased capital expenditure; such as will make for infrastructural development, to meet the yearnings of the people.”
President Seeks N276.8bn Virement
The House also approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for virement of the sum of N276, 757, 232, 395 to fund critical infrastructure in the 2021 budget.
A letter from the president seeking the approval, which was read by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila during plenary, indicated that the virement source of funding would be the Service Wide Vote Upscaling of National Social Investment Programme, with a 2021 appropriation amount of N365, 000, 000, 000.
A breakdown of the critical projects for virement indicates that N199, 129, 053, 400 is proposed under Service Wide Votes for group life assurance for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs); public service wage adjustment for MDAs, including arrears of promotions and salary increase and payments of severance benefits and minimum wage-related adjustments, as well as payment of local contractors’ debts.
Buhari also requested the sum of N4, 500, 821, 569 for various projects under the Ministry of Education.
He proposed the sum of N2,335,167,265 for balance payments of and for the procurement of military hardware for the Nigeria Air Force.
The letter also proposed N4, 617, 811, 857 for the 2013 uninsured claims for the Ministry of Defence Headquarters.
The sum of N25, 000, 000, 000 was proposed for the National Assembly to take care of salary arrears of its staff and interventions to settle outstanding liabilities.
The sum of N20, 038,920, 773 was proposed for the Federal Road Management Agency (FERMA) for emergency restoration of wash out failures across the country.
The sum of N762, 678,972 was proposed for the Nigeria Correctional Service for debts owed contractors.
The sum of N592, 000, 000 was proposed for the Federal Road Safety Commission for financial assistance for the execution of the 2021 end of year special patrol.
Also, the sum of N19, 780,778,558 was proposed for the renovation, construction and equipping of radiotherapy and nuclear medicine centres in eight universities.
The Senate also received a formal request from Buhari for the virement of N276,757,232,395 billion to fund expenditures in the 2021 budget.
This is contained in a letter dated December 16, 2021, which was read by the Senate President Ahmed Lawan during plenary.
A breakdown of the budget allocation showed that defence got N1.2 trillion, power (N306 billion), foreign affairs (N88.4 billion), and aviation, N65.5 billion.
The Ministry of Defence received the lion share of N1.2 trillion. Of this amount, N204.6 billion is for capital projects, N83.5 billion for overhead, while N912.5 is for personnel expenditure.
The Ministry of Power was allocated N306.2 billion, N299.9 for capital projects, N1.3billion for overhead while N4.8 billion is for personnel cost.
For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the total allocation stands at N88.4 billion, out of which N9.1 billion is for capital expenditures, N23.9 for overhead, even asN55.2 billion was earmarked for personnel expenditures.
The Ministry of Aviation got N65.5 billion out of which N56.8 billion goes for Capital projects, N812.2 million for overhead and N6.8 billion for personnel.
Leadership
