The Federal Government has approved a 2.18 trillion naira supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year to cover additional spending in defence, works as well as welfare packages such as wage awards and conditional cash transfers agreed with the Organised Labour.
Unveiling the details to State House correspondents at the end of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Villa, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, ABUBAKAR BAGUDU, said the budget is to fund urgent issues including national defence and security.
BAGUDU said 605 billion naira 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.
A sum of 300 billion naira 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.
The sum of 210 billion naira was provided for the payment of wage awards while the sum of 400 billion naira was earmarked as cash transfer payments.
The FEC also approved 200 billion naira for seed, agricultural input, supplies and agricultural implements and infrastructure to support the expansion of production while 100 billion naira was okayed for the Federal Capital Territory for urgent and immediate capital expenditure infrastructure works.
18 billion naira was provided for the Independent National Electoral Commission for the conduct of the Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo elections.
5.5 billion naira was provided for the funding of the take-off of the student loans board which begins loan disbursement in January 2024.
The supplementary budget also includes 8 billion naira for the take-off grant of new ministries, and 200 billion naira for capital supplementation to deal with urgent requests made to the President from various parts of the country.
The Federal Executive Council also approved 5.9 billion naira for the construction of access roads for the Abuja light rail system.