President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded to the Senate for approval a sum of N819.5 billion as the supplementary budget for the 2022 fiscal year to fix infrastructures destroyed by floods across the various states in the country, less than two weeks from to end of the year.
According to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, the extra budget is intended for the 2022 budget's capital expenditures, which would result in a deficit increase of N8.17 trillion.
The planned N819.5 billion extra budget, the president said, will be paid for by further domestic borrowings.
The letter reads: “The year 2022 has witnessed the worse flood incident in recent history, which has caused massive destruction of farmlands at a point already closed to harvest season.
“This may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in the country. The flood has also devastated road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT and bridges nationwide that are critical for the movement of goods and services.
“The water sector was equally affected by the flood, and there is a need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have already achieved about 85 per cent completion.
“The nine critical projects proposed in the sector cut across water supply, dam, and irrigation projects nationwide.
“I have approved a supplementary budget of 2022 appropriation of N819.536 Billion, all of which are capital expenditures.
“The supplementary will be financed through additional domestic borrowings, which will raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion and deficit to GDP ratio to 4.43%.”
As a proposal meant for a year remaining 10 days to end, the President of the Senate forwarded it to Senate Committees on Appropriation, Finance, Works, Water Resources and Agriculture for expeditious consideration.
The supplementary budget will be passed tomorrow alongside the 2023 Appropriations bill.
The Senate President also disclosed that the much-expected Finance Bill 2022 and the 2023 Federal Inland Revenue Service Budget (FIRS) would be passed on Thursday, the Senate's last sitting day of the year.