Buhari Seeks House’s Approval for N895bn Supplementary Budget

By Udora Orizu

President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the House of Representatives, seeking approval for the sum of N895.842,465,917 as supplementary budget for the 2021 fiscal year.

The Bill transmitted with a letter and dated June 15, 2021 was read by the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, at the resumption of plenary on Tuesday.

Buhari, in the letter, explained that the amount captured is to fund the COVID-19 vaccine programme, health-related expenditure for treatment of additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS programme in states, as well as to procure additional equipment captured in this year’s capital expenditure on defence and security to tackle prevalent security challenges across the country.

According to him, N45.63 billion of the N83.56 billion required for the COVlD-19 vaccine programme will be drawn from existing World Bank loans (which would be restructured) as well as other grants totalling $113.22 million.

He further said the balance of N37.93 billion required for COVlD-19 vaccines, salaries and other health-related expenditure totalling N41.69 billion and the N48.20 billion recurrent component of defence/security expenditure will be funded by drawing N135 billion from some Special Reserve/Levy Accounts, which will be captured as revenues to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN).

The letter read in part: “In our collective efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and address the various security and other challenges facing the country, it has become necessary to prepare the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill considering the urgent need to make provision for procurement and administration of COVlD-19 vaccines. The availability of COVlD-19 vaccines and the procurement terms were still uncertain as at the time of finalising the 2021 budget. Hence, there was no provision in the 2021 Appropriation Act for the procurement and administration of COVID-19 vaccines.

“The Ministry of Defence has carefully scrutinized these procurement needs, which the military authorities claim to represent the minimum requirements to secure our country and address current external and internal security challenges. Furthermore, additional funds are required to meet our commitment to treat additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Programme in States (NCAPS), as the amount provisioned in the 2021 Appropriation Bill for this purpose was inexplicably cut by the National Assembly. In order to address the urgent problem of oxygen availability in the country and avoid the potential loss of lives, provision was made for the procurement and installation of new oxygen plants nationwide and repairs of oxygen plants in FCT hospitals.

“The Supplementary Budget request is for a total sum of N895,842,465,917 (eight hundred and ninety-five billion, eight hundred and forty-two million, four hundred and sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and seventeen naira) only. We propose to fund the balance of N722.40 billion for capital expenditure on defence/security and capital supplementation from new borrowings, in the absence of any supplementary revenue sources. Understandably, needs currently abound in many other sectors. However, we have limited the supplementary budget proposal to just these critical and emergency areas of need due to our severe fiscal constraints. All other needs would be deferred to the 2022 budget, which we plan to present in September of this year.”

Shortly after reading the letter, the Speaker said the Bill will be passed before they embark on summer break mid July.