The Senate passed the 2021 Supplementary Appropriations Bill (N895, 842, 465, 917) for the second time on Wednesday.
The senators examined the supplementary budget’s broad principles a day after Senate President Ahmad Lawan read President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter requesting the Red Chamber’s approval of the budget.
Funds for military equipment and the COVID-19 vaccine program were included in the extra budget.
After the budget passed second reading, Lawan referred it to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will report back on Tuesday.
The details of the supplementary budget showed that the Executive proposed to fund N45.63 billion of the N83. 56 billion required for the COVID-19 vaccine programme.
The balance of N37. 93 billion required for COVID-19 vaccines, salaries and other health-related expenditures totalling N41.6 billion and N48.2 billion recurrent component of defence and security will be funded by borrowing N135 billion from some special reserve levy accounts.
The Executive also proposed to fund the balance of N722.4 billion for capital expenditure on defense and security and capital supplementation from new borrowings in the absence of any supplementary revenue sources.
