Senate passes 2022 budget of N17.12trn
Abimbola Abatta
The Senate on Wednesday passed the 2022 fiscal year budget with an aggregate expenditure of N17,126,873,917,692 trillion naira.
After passing the 2022 budget, the Senate adjourned plenary till January 18, 2022 for the Christmas break and New year.
This follows after the House of Representatives passed the 2022 budget presented by the President in Abuja.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 7 presented the budget estimates before a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Passing the budget, the Senate increased the 2022 appropriations from N16,391,023,917,692 to N17,126,873,917,692.
To reflect the current market values of the oil barrel in the international market, the Oil Benchmark Price was increased from $57 to $62.
While the daily oil production rate was pegged at 1.86 million per barrel, the exchange rate was pegged at N410.15/US$1, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Rate at 4.2 and Inflation Rate at 13 percent.
The Senate passed the budget after considering and adopting the recommendations of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation – presented by the chairman, Barau Jibrin (APC Kano).
While presenting the report, Senator Barau explained that out of the N17,126,873,917,692 passed, N869,667,187,542 is for Statutory Transfer.
Senator Barau further noted that N6,909,849,788,737 is for Recurrent Expenditure; N5,467,403,959,863 is for Capital Expenditure; while N3,879,952,981,550 is for Debt Service.
He had noted that the revenue projection for the 2022 budget was predicated on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper approved by the National Assembly.
In its recommendations, the Committee stated that additional revenues discovered should be provided to the Works and Housing Ministry for funding of critical projects, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the 2023 General Elections, Defence and the National Population Commission for the 2022 Population Census.
According to the Committee, N98 billion naira increase in deficit should be approved to take care of some of the additional requests from the executive arm of government.
A breakdown of recurrent expenditure shows that N61,079,757,342 was budgeted for the Presidency in 2022, N996,09 1,292,618 for Defence, N79,243,483,198 for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, N55,796,274,038 for Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, N257,626,461,524 for Ministry of Interior, N7,919,353,247 for Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, and N4,476,854,068 for the Auditor General for the Federation.
The Federal Ministry of Police Affairs received N518,532,292,470, while the Ministry of a communications and Digital Economy got N23,387,996,618, National Security Adviser – N155,820,2 14,009, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission – N1,344,674,257, Secretary to the Government of the Federation – N62,575,420,244, Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs – N4,439,614,685, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – N75,544,228,649, and Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning – N28,604, 104,969.
Also, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment received N17,966,745,438, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment – N14,453,726,978, Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation – N49,683,523,165, Federal Ministry of Transport – N15,892,132,819, Federal Ministry of Aviation – N7,692,548,460, Federal Ministry of Power – N6,262,156,943, and Ministry of Petroleum Resources – N30,502,257, 191.
N12,038,392,758 was budgeted for the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, N31,935,604,197 for Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, N870,534,226 for National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, N456,245,928 for Fiscal Responsibility Commission, N10,669,058,320 for Federal Ministry of Water Resources, N26,761,780,448 for Federal Ministry of Justice, and N11,655,253,717 for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission.
Others are Federal Capital Territory Administration – Nil, Federal Ministry of Niger Delta – N2,569,680,304, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development – N185,489,102,966, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs – N2,103,758,084, Federal Ministry of Education – N593,473,925,256, Federal Ministry of Health – N462,858,698,619, Federal Ministry of Environment – N22,796,647,842, National Population Commission – N8,880,618,082, and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development – N7,669,972,542.
Other Executive bodies such as the Federal Code of Conduct Bureau received N2,343,845,401, Code of Conduct Tribunal – N830,910,644, Federal Character Commission – N3,272,871,999, Federal Civil Service Commission – N1,217,473,478, Police Service Commission – N926,505,919, and Revenue Mobilization, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission – N2,337,230,632.
