***To rely on domestic borrowing to finance proposal
Barely 10 days to end of 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to approve N819.5b supplementary budget for the 2022 fiscal year to fix infrastructure destroyed by the flood disaster that ravaged the country recently
The supplementary appropriation as requested by the President in a letter read at plenary by the President of Senate, Ahmad Lawan, is meant for the capital expenditure component of the 2022 budget with increase in deficit to N8.17trillion.
President Buhari added that he will embark on additional domestic borrowing to finance the proposed N819.5b supplementary budget.
The letter reads: “The year 2022 has witnessed the worse flood incident in recent history which has caused massive destruction of farm lands 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 as well as bridges nationwide that are critical for 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 percentage completion.
“The nine critical projects proposed in the sector cuts across water supply , dam projects and irrigation projects nationwide.
“I have approved a supplementary budget of 2022 appropriation of N819.536 Billion, all of which are capital expenditure.
“The supplementary budget 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%”
Being a proposal meant for a year remaining 10 days to end, the President of the Senate hurriedly forwarded it to Senate Committees on Appropriation , Finance, Works, Water Resources and Agriculture for expeditious consideration.
