By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu has written to the House of Representatives seeking the approval for an $8.6 billion and €100 million external borrowing plan for critical infrastructure in areas such as power, roads, water, railway, and health.
The President also forwarded the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Supplementary Budget to the lower chamber for consideration.
Meanwhile, the President will present the 2024 budget to the National Assembly on Wednesday. This was after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a 2024 budget of N27.5 trillion.
The approval followed the review of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) earlier passed by the National Assembly which benchmarked the exchange rate at N700 to $1 and crude oil price at $73.96 per barrel.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Abubakar Bagudu, told reporters at the State House on Monday that FEC revised the MTEF and the Fiscal Policy to use an exchange rate of N750 to $1 and also a benchmark crude oil reference price of $77.96 per barrel.
According to Mr Bagudu, the FEC also approved an Appropriation Bill for 2024 with an aggregate expenditure of N27.5 trillion, an increase of over N1.5 trillion from the previously estimated.
Business Post had reported that the federal government initially planned to borrow N9 trillion from the debt market to fund 35 per cent of next year’s budget, but with the increment in the budget, this has become 33 per cent while the remaining 67 per cent or N18.5 trillion will be raised from revenue.
The federal government intends to spend N27.50 trillion in 2024 which is 21.4 per cent or about N4.85 trillion higher than the corresponding 2023 estimated spending of N22.65 trillion which includes the N819.54 billion supplementary provision.
Out of the planned spending, N8.25 trillion and N243 billion have been provided for debt service and sinking funds to retire maturing bonds issued to local contractors and creditors, respectively.
