President Bola Tinubu arrived at the National Assembly complex earlier on Wednesday morning to present his first full-year National Budget to the National Assembly since he was sworn in May 2023. The president who presented the 2024 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives was accompanied by some ministers and aides, and senior officials.
The President arrived at the National Assembly complex at about 11:09 am on Wednesday morning and was led into the chamber of the House of Representatives for the presentation of the N27.5trillion budget to a joint session of the National Assembly which began after the rendition of the National Anthem and opening prayers.
It can be recalled that ahead of today’s budget presentation three weeks ago, President Tinubu forwarded to both chambers of the National Assembly the 2024 – 2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper where the sum of N26.1tn was proposed as the total expenditure profile for the 2024 fiscal year.
The Senate, through its committee on Finance, had a two-week deliberation with heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies on revenue and expenditure projections made for them, and approved the MTEF.
The committee also approved new borrowing of N7.8 trillion, fixed the oil price reference value for 2024 at $73.96, and set the oil production target at 1.78 million barrels daily.
It also approved new borrowings of N7.8 trillion, while pegging the oil price benchmark for 2024 at $73.96 and oil production at 1.78 million barrels per day.
Other parameters approved are a GDP growth rate of 3.76 percent, an inflation rate of 21.40 percent, a suggested benchmark exchange rate of N700 to $1, and a projected budget deficit of N9.04 trillion.
All this put together, adjusted the budget to N27.5 trillion.
