President Bola Tinubu signed the N29.7 trillion 2024 appropriation bill into law on Monday, January 1, 2024, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
President Tinubu signed the budget paper earlier passed by the National Assembly hours after arriving in Abuja from Lagos, where he had been on vacation for the last week.
According to Politics Nigeria, the 2024 budget is N1.2 trillion larger than what he recommended to the National Assembly in a joint session on November 29, 2023.
The President has estimated a N9.18 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year 2024.
“The N9.18 trillion deficit is lower than the N13.78 trillion deficit recorded in 2023, which represents 6.11 per cent of GDP,” Tinubu said.
“The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totaling N7.83 trillion, N298.49 billion from Privatisation Proceeds and N1.05 trillion drawdown on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects.”
He also stressed the importance of maintaining the January-December implementation cycle, stating, “Our aim is to ensure that the Appropriation Act takes effect on January 1, 2024.”
On Friday, December 29, 2023, the Senate increased the 2024 budget by N1.2 trillion, raising it from N27.5 trillion to N28.7 trillion.
According to the report submitted by the Appropriation Committee, led by Senator Solomon Adeola, the total expenditure was set at N28,777,404,073,861. Statutory transfers were allocated N1,742,786,788,150, recurrent expenditure was set at N8,768,530,852, capital expenditure at N9,995,143,298,028, and GDP at 3.88 percent.
