N/Assembly raises ways and means advance to 10%

• Re-enacts 2024 appropriation act of N35trn

The two chambers of the National Assembly yesterday passed a bill to raise ways and means advances to 10 per cent.

The existing law provides that the advance by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must not exceed five percent of the previous year’s revenue of the federal government.

Daily Trust reports that Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls.

Recall that the Senate had inaugurated an ad hoc committee led by Senator Isah Jibrin (Kogi East) to probe into how the N30 trillion ways and means was obtained and spent by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

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With the passage of the CBN Amendment Act, President Bola Ahned Tinubu would have the legal right to obtain more loans from the CBN to finance budget shortfalls if he finally assented to the bill.

The National Assembly also repealed and re-enacted the 2024 Appropriation Act, which provided for N35.055 trillion as expenditure for the 2024 fiscal year.

The Senate and the House of Representatives rescinded their resolution on the Appropriations Act (amendment), 2024, passed on Tuesday last week.

After a debate on the matter, both chambers repealed and re-enacted the 2024 appropriation act to the tune of N35.055 trillion.