The Senate on Thursday approved the 2025 Appropriation Act of N54.9 trillion presented to it by President Bola Tinubu.
This followed the submission of the report of the Joint Committee on Appropriations to plenary by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Adeola.
It also urged the executive to henceforth, present the Budget to the National Assembly not later than 3 months before the next financial year, adding that this will help return the country to the January —December budget circle.
Recall, Tinubu in 2024 laid before the Joint sitting of the National Assembly, the 2025 Appropriation Bill, tagged Budget of Restoration Securing Peace and Building Prosperity, containing revenue estimates and expenditure for the 2025 fiscal year.
The action by the President was inline with Section 81(1) of the 1999 Constitution as altered amended.
The proposal as initially submitted by the President was $149,740,165,355,396 which is equivalent to 49,740,165,355,396 naira (forty-nine trillion, seven hundred and forty billion, one hundred and sixty-five million, three hundred and fifty-five thousand, three hundred and ninety-six naira).
But a letter which was read early in 2025 showed Tinubu`s desire to have the fiscal policy increased to 54,990,165,355,396 naira an upscale of over 4 trillion naira.
The document cited by this medium showed that of this figure N 3,645,761,358,925 (three trillion, six hundred and forty-five billion, seven hundred and sixty-one million, three hundred and fifty-eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five naira) was for statutory transfers.
Also, N14,317,142,689.548 (fourteen trillion, three hundred and seventeen billion, one hundred and forty-two million, six hundred and eighty-nine thousand, five hundred and forty-eight naira) goes to debt servicing, while N13,064,009,682,673 (thirteen trillion, sixty-four billion, nine million, six hundred and eighty-two thousand, six hundred and seventy-three naira) goes to recurrent (non-debt) expenditure.
In the same vein, the executive has earmarked the sum of N23,963,251,624,250 (twenty-three trillion, nine hundred and sixty-three billion, two hundred and fifty-one million, six hundred and twenty-four thousand, two hundred and fifty Naira) for the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure in 2025.
A further breakdown of the budget showed that Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) attracted an allocation of N1,823, 879, 970, 637, as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) received N41,497,600,000,000 which is 52% of the federal government`s share of the increase in revenue from 22.1 trillion to 825.1 trillion after cost deduction.
According to the document passed by the Senate, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) was allocated the sum of N41,209,000,000,000 – federal government’s share of the increase in revenue from 6.5 trillion to 9.0 trillion after the deduction of cost of collection.
The Appropriations committee chairman added that the total sum of N4,530,479,637 additional revenue realised from the above effort was communicated to the executive which applied the funds to critical areas such as Solid Minerals Sector- $41 trillion, recapitalization of Bank of Agriculture (BoA) 41.5 trillion, recapitalization of Bank of Industry (Bol) 500 billion only, and Critical Infrastructure Projects (RHID Fund) – 1.5 trillion.
Others are development of irrigation through River Basin Development Authorities- N4380 billion, Transportation Infrastructure (roads & Rail) N700 billion (N8300 billion for construction & rehabilitation of critical roads and N4400 billion for light rail network development in urban centres.
The federal government extended 50 billion naira to border communities, N4,250 for provision of military barracks accommodation, military aviation N4,120 billion; as the committee further examined 270 billion naira excesses arising from the 2025 budget.
Addressing the media after his presentation in the Chamber, Senator Adeola explained that increase to the budget flowed from events in the international arena, as he unerscored that “the recent action by the United States Government to suspend further intervention in the Nigerian Health sector through provision of vaccines and drugs for malaria, Polio, HIV and Tuberculosis using its agency USAID will have adverse effects on Nigerians affected by such diseases.
“On this note, the President proactively made a new provision of $200m which is equivalent to N300bn, in the Service Wide Votes to fill the gap created by the United States (US} Government’s suspension of intervention to Nigerian Health sector, to proactively address the above mentioned health challenges which are currently being suffered by Countries like Uganda and others.
“Similarly, some critical agencies of government forwarded genuine requests to Mr. President for additional funding. After thorough examination by the Joint Appropriations Committee, additional funds were provided to the agencies which include: Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC}, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC), National Judicial Council (NJC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA),
“Department of State Service (DSS), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces among others.
“The Budget size was increased by N700 billion to cater for N8, 270 billion differential between the details of the budget and the bill, the provision of $200m which is equivalent to N300bn for procurement of vaccines and drugs, as well as some agencies of government been provided funds to take care of critical needs.
The Joint Committee worked harmoniously with the Leadership of the National Assembly and the Executive arm of government in the processing of the Bill. This ensured maximum collaboration of the two arms in the utilization of additional revenue projection, to improve the funding of some critical projects, which could not be adequately funded in the budget proposal earlier submitted by Mr. President, due to funding constraints.”
