Reps pass N35.055 trillion 2024 budget

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill seeking to increase the 2024 Appropriation from N28.7 trillion to N35.055 trillion.
The House decision followed the passage of the bill through a third reading during the consideration and adoption of Clauses 1 to 13, at the Committee of Supply and recommended by the House Committee on Appropriation.
A breakdown of the proposed N35,055,536,770,218 for the 2024 fiscal year, showed that the sum of N1,742,786,788,150 is for Statutory Transfers; N8,270,960,606,831 is for Debt Service; N11,268,513,380,853 is for Recurrent Expenditure while the sum of N13,773,275,994,384 is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31st December 2024.
In his lead debate, Hon. Abubakar Bichi who presented the harmonised joint Senate and House report, solicited for the adoption of the recommendations of the Committee.
Briefing Journalist after the passage, Rep Bichi disclosed that: “As you can see, today we have passed 6.2 trillion by Mr President, the budget of renewed hope, 3.2 trillion capital, while about 3 trillion will go to the current. And as I said last time, this is critical road infrastructure that Mr. President wants to actualize.
“You know, they have covered about 21 states. One section with Lagos-Calabar, as you are all aware, it covers about 9 states, which is about 700-kilometre road projects. Also, Sokoto-Badagry, it’s critical, it covers about 6 to 7 states. And that project is also important, it’s covered about 1,000 kilometres. We have another one from Ebonyi, all the way from Abuja, from the Trans-Saharan section. Now it’s about a 400-kilometer road project.
“Of course, we need some funding to execute this kind of important project. It also has these rail lines, which is from Abuja, Katsina, Kaduna to Kano, and from Katsina to Maradi. All of these critical projects, Mr. President wants to actualize it. They are called legacy projects. That’s why we are calling a renewed hope budget.”
“As far back as 2019, 2020, we had a national conference where we validated this policy with a critical mass of stakeholders in the room across the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education NBTE and even the student community.
“We have NANs female wing which means that this particular process is all inclusive. So that it centres on leadership, participation, aspiration and experiences of persons who are mostly affected by the structural inequity, and that is the student community
“We really look to moving this forward from here because we know in Nigeria, when policies are made, they do not automatically translate into implementation. “