Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will on Wednesday, 29 November, present the 2024 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly.
This was made known by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, after the Federal Executive Council meeting which held at the state house on Monday and was presided over by Tinubu.
According to thr minister,FEC has also approved the 2024 Appropriation Bill of N27.5tn indicating an increase from the N26.01tn earlier considered by the council.
He also disclosed that the Federal Government is projecting N18tn revenue for the 2024 fiscal year adding that further details of the appropriation bill would be released when the President presents it to a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday.
According to him, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework passed by the National Assembly is being reviewed by the Council.
Bagudu said “Equally, the Federal Executive Council approved the 2024 Appropriation Bill and the presentation of such to the National Assembly by His Excellency, Mr. President.
“The bill has an aggregate expenditure of N27.5tn which is an increase of over N1.5tn from the previously estimated, using the old reference prices.”
He added, “The forecast revenue is now N18.32tn which is higher than the 2023 revenues, including that provided in the two supplementary budgets. Equally and commendably, the deficit is lower than that of 2023. Details of the Renewed Hope Budget will be announced by Mr. President when he makes the presentation to the National Assembly”
The minister also announced some changes made in the MTEF benchmarks by FEC.
“That approved Medium Term Expenditure Framework has the exchange rate of N700 to $1 and equally, the benchmark crude oil price at $73.96 cent. However, in Mr. President’s determination to find more money to fund our priorities, today the Federal Executive Council further revised the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Policy Framework and two of the important decisions were to use an exchange rate of N750 to $1 and also a benchmark crude oil reference price of $77.96, meaning $4 more than the earlier approval,” he noted.
He disclosed that the changes “will significantly increase government revenue that the President intends to use in supporting the ministries, departments and agencies in the execution of the eight priority areas, particularly Health, Education, infrastructure, security and other developmental areas.”