President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the National Assembly to approve the 2022 supplementary budget of N819 billion.
Gatekeepers News reports that the President’s request was read by the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila during plenary session on Wednesday.
Buhari said all of the additional budget of N819,536,937,813 for 2022 are capital expenditure and it became necessary due to the devastation caused by floods on farmlands and road infrastructure.
The President lamented that Nigeria witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history in 2022, resulting to massive destruction of farmlands with risks of food insecurity.
Buhari explained that the disaster affected several roads and bridge infrastructures across the 36 states of the federation which are critical for the movement of goods and services.
He wrote, “The water sector was equally affected by the flood and there is the need to complete some critical ongoing projects that have achieved about 85 per cent completion.
“The nine critical projects proposed in the sector cuts across water supply, dam and irrigation projects nationwide.”
He noted that the supplementary budget will be financed “through additional domestic borrowings.”
“This will raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion and deficit to GDP ratio to N4.43 per cent.”
The additional budget comes barely 24 hours before the passage of the 2023 Appropriation bill.
