Nigeria’s 2019 budget was on Tuesday passed for second reading at the Senate.
The N8.8 trillion budget will now be worked on by the committee on appropriation. The committee was given two weeks to report back to the whole house.
On January 28, the House of Representatives passed the bill for second reading.
Passage of the budget comes after a second-day deliberation at the Senate.
The lawmakers on March 13 commenced deliberations on the budget.
The 8.83 trillion budget was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 19, 2018.
The proposed budget shows that about a quarter of the sum (N2.14 trillion) will be used for debt servicing while capital expenditure is expected to gulp N2.031 trillion.
A further breakdown shows that proposed recurrent expenditure is N4.04 trillion, statutory transfer is N492.36 billion, there is a sinking fund of N120 billion, while capital expenditure is N2.031 trillion.
The budget was prepared on the assumption of $60 per barrel with crude oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day. The exchange rate is assumed at N305 to $1.
