Nigerian parliament approves record 6.06 trillion naira budget

Nigeria’s National Assembly at a joint sitting on Wednesday approved a record budget which gave few clues about how the country intended to find money as its energy sector struggled to recover.

President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year submitted the blueprint for his first budget since assuming office.

The #Budget2016 is hereby passed.

— Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) March 23, 2016

He however had to withdraw it a month later after a further drop in oil prices on the world market. The overall budget now stands at 6.06 trillion naira, down from the 6.08 trillion naira spending plan outlined in December.

Senate President Bukola Saraki told the assembly that an act has been issued to allow over 6 trillion naira to be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue fund. Of that amount, a little over 351 billion naira will be used for statutory transfers.

How Senate, House of Reps passed 2016 budget https://t.co/GmdRDBpxAN

— Premium Times (@PremiumTimesng) March 24, 2016

Some 1.475 trillion will be used to service debt while over 2 trillion will go into recurrent non-debt expenditure.

The Senate president commended the house for making “an effort to reduce the size of the budget in our own view to ensure that we reduce our deficit and also reduce our level of borrowing and as much as possible run a budget that is sustainable. We have played our part, the different committees now in the area of oversight to ensure that we have a budget that is fully implemented.”

Nigeria which earns about 70 percent of its revenue from crude exports, saw its economy grow about 2.8 per cent last year, its slowest rate since 1999, as lower crude prices took a toll.

Nigeria has in recent months held exploratory talks with the World Bank and also tried to secure funding from the African Development Bank and China’s export bank.