Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, transmitted the 2022 Appropriation Act (Amendment) Bill to the National Assembly.

The president, in the letter entitled, “SUBMISSION OF THE 2022 APPROPRIATION AMENDMENT PROPOSAL” requested consideration and approval to accommodate the additional fuel subsidy funding. 

The six-page executive bill is expected to contain a provision for the payment of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, for an additional 18 months. Recall that the president had called for the suspension of the removal of fuel subsidy. In the bill, the president requested that the assembly restore some allocations to projects earlier scheduled for the year.

The bill is coming over a month after the president has signed into law the 2022 fiscal budget.

Highlight of the Bill

• Reinstate the N25.81 billion cut from the provision for the Power Sector Reform Programme.
• Reinstate the four (4) capital projects totaling N1.42 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.
• Restore the N3 billion cut from the provision made for payment of mostly long outstanding Local Contractors’ Debts and Other Liabilities.
• Transfer the National Assembly’s expenditures totaling N16.59 billion in the Service Wide Vote to National Assembly Statutory Transfer.
• Reinstate the N22.0 billion cut from the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Mature Loans.
• Restore cuts made from provisions for the recurrent spending of Nigeria’s Foreign Missions, and the reductions in provisions for allowances payable to personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Police Formations and Commands.
• Remove all capital projects that are replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act; 139 out of the 254 such projects totaling N13.24 billion.
• Roll back some of the N887.99 billion of projects inserted in the National Assembly .
• An additional provision of N2.557 trillion will be required to fund the petrol subsidy in 2022.
• “The Appropriation Amendment request is for a total sum of N106,161,499,052 (One hundred and six billion, one hundred and sixty-one million, four hundred and ninety-nine thousand, and fifty-two Naira only) for Capital Expenditures and N43,870,592,044 (Forty-three billion, eight hundred and seventy million, five hundred and ninety-two thousand, and forty-four Naira only) for Recurrent Expenditures.

Financial Expectation

The President noted that the Federation Account (Main Pool) revenue for the three tiers of government is projected to decline by N2.00 trillion, while FGN’s share from the Account is projected to reduce by N1.05 trillion. Therefore, the amount available to fund the FGN Budget is projected to decline by N969.09 billion.

“Aggregate expenditure is projected to increase by N45.85 billion, due to additional domestic debt service provision of N102.5 billion net of the reductions in Statutory Transfers by N56.67 billion, as follows: NDDC, by N12.61 billion from N102.78 billion to N90.18 billion; NEDC, by N5.90 billion from N48.08 billion to N42.18 billion; UBEC, by N19.08 billion from N112.29 billion to N93.21 billion; Basic Health Care Fund, byN 9.54 billion from N56.14 billion to N46.60 billion; and NASENI, by N9.54 billion from N56.14 billion to N46.60 billion.

“Total budget deficit is projected to increase by N1.01 trillion to N7.40 trillion, representing 4.01% of GDP. The incremental deficit will be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market”, he said.