FG: Eko Bridge, Students Loan, Others to gulp N2 Trillion Proposed Supplementary Budget

The Federal Government says it has approved a N2.18 trillion supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year to cover additional spending in defence, works and welfare packages such as wage awards and conditional cash transfers agreed with the Organized Labour.

The Minister of  Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, unveiled the details of the supplementary budget to State House correspondents at the end of Monday’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Villa.

He said the budget is to “fund urgent issues including national defence and security.”

Bagudu said, “N605bn for national defence and security is to sustain the gains made in security and to accelerate and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out.

“Equally a sum of N300bn was provided to repair bridges including Eko and Third Mainland Bridges as well as construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.

“Equally, the sum of N210bn was provided for the payment of wage awards. In negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Federal Government agreed to pay N35,000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the Federal Government and that amounts from September, October, November and December 2023.

“Also, N400bn as cash transfer payments. You may recall that the Federal Government secured a $800m loan from the World Bank to pay cash transfers of N25,000 to 15 million households. The $800 million is for two months, October and November. The President graciously approved that an additional month should be funded by the federal government and that is what this N100bn is for.”

An additional N18bn was provided for the Independent National Electoral Commission for the conduct of the Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo elections; N5.5bn for the funding of the take-off of the student loans board which begins loan disbursement in January 2024.

The supplementary budget also includes N8bn for the take-off grant of new ministries, and N200bn for capital supplementation to deal with urgent requests made to the President from various parts of the country.