* Passes N895.842bn Supplementary Budget
The Senate gave the approval on Wednesday after it considered a report from its Committee on Local and Foreign Debt which it earlier directed to work on the loan request.
Presenting the report on the floor during plenary, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Clifford Ordia said the request is not new as it was approved in the borrowing plan when the National Assembly passed the 2021 budget noting that it would be used to fund the budget deficit.
Channels Television reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier in May asked the National Assembly to approve the loan request, saying it would be raised from multilateral and bilateral tenders as well as the international capital market.
This supplementary budget is intended to equip the military in fighting insurgency, covid 19 vaccination, and also funding for the management of HIV.
Its passage comes after a satisfactory report by Senator Jibrin Barau, Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation, where he explained that the supplementary budget would augment the effort of various government agencies to discharge their responsibilities.
Senator Barau further noted that security agencies will be able to procure arms and equipment as they continue to contain the security threats posed in various regions of the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari on the 22nd of June transmitted the supplementary budget of N895.8 billion to the Senate for approval.
The president’s request comes about two weeks after the Federal Executive Council approved the budget.
According to the Federal Government, the budget is specifically meant to enhance the capacity of the military and para-military agencies to tackle the various security challenges in the country.
“The total of this expenditure is made up of N83.56 billion for COVID-19 vaccine programme, covering 30 billion vaccines from Johnson and Johnson vaccines and the logistics cost related to the deployment of that vaccine,” the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had said on June 9.
“It also contains the sum of N1.69 billion for the Nigerian Comprehensive AIDS programme currently operating in the States and an additional contingency provision of N40 billion under the public service-wide wage adjustments to take care of the needs for allowances to the health and education sectors and other wage-related issues.”
She said the Council also approved an aggregate sum of N770.60 billion to further enhance the capacity of the defence and security agencies to address current and emerging security challenges in our country.