By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria’s National Assembly on Thursday passed the ₦54.99trn ($35.8bn) 2025 Appropriation Bill presented before it by the Executive.
Both chambers of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the bill separately.
A breakdown of the budget showed ₦3.645trn for statutory transfers, ₦14.317trn for debt servicing, ₦13.64trn for recurrent expenditure, and ₦23.963trn for capital expenditure (development fund), with the fiscal deficit put at ₦13.08trn.
The deficit-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio was put at 1.52%.
President Bola Tinubu, just last week, increased the 2025 fiscal year budget from an initial ₦49.7trn to ₦54.2trn, seeking approval from the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abubakar Bichi, while presenting the bill for consideration, stated that the committee met with the Presidential Economic Planning Team to further discuss revenue projections and expenditure for the 2025 Appropriation Bill.
According to him, the 2025 Appropriation Bill was presented late compared to that of 2024.
He urged the Executive to present subsequent budgets to the National Assembly no later than three months before the next financial year to maintain the January-to-December budget cycle.
