By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu has signed the N28.7 trillion 2024 Budget into law.
Tinubu assented to the 2024 Appropriation Bill at a brief ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.
President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Hon Tajudeen Abbas, were among those who accompanied the President.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Abubakar; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, were on hand as well.
Also on the ground were the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila; the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje; Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, among others.
Tinubu signed the budget hours after he arrived in Abuja from Lagos where he spent the past week on the yuletide holiday.
The 2024 budget is N1.2 trillion higher than the budget he proposed to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 29, 2023.
On Friday, December 29, 2023, the Senate increased the 2024 budget by N1.2tn, moving the budget from N27.5tn to N28.7tn.
According to the report submitted by the Appropriation Committee led by Senator Solomon Adeola, aggregate expenditure was pegged at N28,777,404.073.861; statutory transfers at N1,742,786,788,150; recurrent expenditure at N8,768.5330,852; capital expenditure at N9,995,143,298,028 and GDP at 3.88 per cent.
