Buhari Sends Supplementary Budget To Senate, Seeks To Borrow N2.10trn

Buhari is said to have made the request via a letter sent to the upper legislative chamber and read during plenary by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, according to Vanguard.

A partial breakdown of the budget shows: N2bn for feeding of students of unity schools, N413bn for settlement of subsidy claims and N39bn is for operation lafiya Dole, which is the anti-insurgency campaign in the northeast.

In the letter separately addressed to the Senate and the House of Representatives, the President also asked the lawmakers to approve the upward review of a new borrowing plan from N882.1 billion to N2.103 trillion just as he sought an upward review of the fiscal deficit from N1.09 per cent of GDP to N2.219 per cent of GDP.

Of the 465.6 billion Naira supplementary budget, a total of 413.363 billion Naira was set aside as payment of subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol. Benchmark oil price of 53 dollars per barrel and an exchange rate of 190 per dollar.

However the implementation of the FGN 2015 Budget has been flawed with significant revenue shortfalls due to continuous decline in oil price, oil production shortfall and non oil revenue.

Of the amount, N460 billion is for additional recurrent expenditure (non debt).

However, there was a few positive news for the Lagos State Government Wednesday when the Senate gave the state the nod to borrow $200 million from the World Bank in accordance with the president’s request on September 29.

Tuesday’s development follows an interim report by a presidential committee investigating arms procurement, part of the fight against Nigeria’s endemic corruption that Buhari has waged since taking office in May after defeating Jonathan in elections.

No official explanation was given by the presidency for the failure to convene the meeting.

He however said no reason was given in the memo for the cancellation of the meeting.