Buhari seeks Senate approval for N895bn supplementary budget

The Senate on Tuesday received President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to approve the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N895, 842, 465, 917.

Buhari’s letter seeking approval was read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan on resumption of plenary on Tuesday.

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The supplementary budget contained funds to purchase military equipment and the COVID-19 vaccine programme.

The president sought expeditious legislative action on the supplementary budget given the urgency of the request.

Buhari, in the letter, said the executive proposed to fund N45.63bn of the N83.56bn required for the COVID-19 vaccine programme.

He said: “The balance of N37. 93bn required for COVID-19 vaccines, salaries and other health-related expenditures totaling N41.6bn and N48.2bn recurrent component of defence and security will be funded by borrowing N135bn from some special reserve levy accounts.

“We propose to fund the balance of N722.4bn for capital expenditure on defence and security and capital supplementation from new borrowings in the absence of any supplementary revenue sources.”