The 2023 appropriation bill will on Tuesday, January 3, 2023, be signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was disclosed by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to state house correspondents after meeting with Buhari on Friday.
This follows the passage of a 21.83 trillion budget for the 2023 fiscal year by the house of representatives and senate.
Both chambers of the national assembly increased the budget spending by N1.33 trillion from the proposed N20.51 trillion to N2.83 trillion.
President Buhari had proposed a $70 per barrel oil benchmark but the legislators while passing the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), raised it to $73 per barrel.
Other parameters included daily oil production estimate of 1.69 million barrels (inclusive of condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels daily) at an exchange rate of N435.57/$.
Also, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was projected at 3.75 percent, with 17.16 percent inflation rate.
The national assembly also passed the 2022 finance bill which aims to expand the tax net to increase revenue for the federal government.
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Lawan in an interaction with the press after the meeting said his discussion with Buhari was focused on the 2023 appropriation bill and the recent additional loan request.
He regretted that the 2023 budget signing is coming a bit later than that of 2022 which was signed on December 31, 2021.
The senate president said that the 9th Assembly had maintained January to December budget cycle but the one-week delay experienced was due to inconsistencies discovered by the lawmakers in the budgetary documents submitted by the executives.
He also said the upcoming general elections were part of the national issues that were discussed.
Lawan gave assurance that the legislature will back the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with sufficient budgetary provisions to conduct free and fair elections devoid of underfunding.
Source: Cable