FG to borrow more as Buhari asks N’Assembly to approve N819bn supplementary budget

By Abubakar Yunus, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the national assembly to approve a supplementary budget of N819 billion.

Buhari’s request was read by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives, during plenary session on Wednesday.

He said the 2022 supplementary budget would be used to finance infrastructural projects across the country.

The national assembly had passed N17.12 trillion as the 2022 budget, but it was later revised to N17.31 trillion on Buhari’s request who cited the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war on the country’s economy.

In the latest request, contained in a letter to the national assembly, Buhari said the 2022 flood has affected infrastructure across the nation.

He said the supplementary budget would be financed through additional domestic borrowings and this would raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion and the deficit GDP ratio to 4.43 percent.

“The year 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history which has caused massive destruction to farmlands at the point close to harvest season. This may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country,” the letter reads.

“The flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT, [and] has affected sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to the movement of goods and services.

“The water sector was also affected by the flood and there is a need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have achieved about 85 project completion.

“The nine critical projects proposed in the sector cut across water supply, dam projects and irrigation projects nationwide.

“I have, therefore, approved the supplementary 2022 appropriation of N819,536,137,812 all of which are capital expenditure.”