President Bola Tinubu is gearing up to present the 2024 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly during the third week of November 2023.
Informed sources within the Presidency, who confirmed this information revealed that the President intends to deliver the budget document to lawmakers during the week starting November 20, 2023. This move is in line with the government’s aim to maintain the budget implementation cycle from January to December, among other objectives.
“It would be three weeks away. The President is expected to be in Berlin for Germany’s Compact-with-Africa initiative for investment. It is a continuation of the visit of the German Chancellor to Nigeria last week, and he has invited the President to be there. It’s a one-day event to be held on Monday, November 20, and he is expected back in Abuja the next day. So, we expect him to present the budget any day from that time,” one source disclosed.
Another source, corroborating the information, noted that the 2024 budget, which is the largest so far, reflects the administration’s goals to finance it through a combination of savings from the scrapped petroleum subsidy, tax revenues, and new borrowings.
“He (President Tinubu) will present it around that same time. This budget is significantly larger than the others. It is ambitious yet realistic, and we hope to accommodate it through subsidy savings, tax revenues, and new borrowings,” the source stated.
President Tinubu is scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia this Thursday and will subsequently attend the compact event in Germany later this month.
On October 16, the Federal Executive Council projected N26.01 trillion in expenses for the 2024 fiscal year. They also approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework for 2024 – 2026, reaffirming their commitment to maintaining the January to December budget implementation cycle. The President is expected to present the 2024 appropriation bill to the National Assembly for ratification before December 31, 2023.
“The aggregate expenditure is estimated at N26.01 trillion for the 2024 budget, which includes statutory transfers of N1.3 trillion, non-debt recurrent expenditure of N10.26 trillion, debt service estimated at N8.25 trillion, and N7.78 trillion being provided for personnel pension cost,” clarified the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Bagudu.
