The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday passed a 2022 budget of N17.126 trillion against N16.391 trillion as presented by President Muhammadu Buhari.
While passing the bill, the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly increased the benchmark price of crude from $57 to $62 per barrel, from which a proposed increase in revenue is expected.
While the sum of N3.8 trillion is for debt service, N6.9 trillion is for recurrent non-debt expenditure and N5.4 trillion for capital expenditure.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, after the bill was passed, applauded the National Assembly for restoring the budget cycle back to January to December.
He said, “We thank Almighty God for helping us achieve that.
“Let me commend this senate for standing tall. We are rounding the year on a very high note, we passed the PIB and it is not an act, something that was not passed for over 20 years.
“We passed the electoral bill but we know there are some reservations, so we will look at it with the house of representatives. I am sure that this Senate and the National Assembly has done a lot in legislative intervention.”
The House of Representatives had earlier on Tuesday passed the exact figure as the 2022 Appropriation bill.
The lawmakers made provision for 10 percent of monies recovered by EFCC and the National Financial Intelligence Unit to be utilised by the agencies for their operations, to strengthen their fight against corruption.
The budget deficit was increased by N98 billion to accommodate some other requests of national importance which have not been captured in the budget estimates and which could not be covered by the revenue increase.