The Nigerian National Assembly has begun the debate on the 2016 appropriation bill.
The debate on the Appropriation Bill has taken the circuitous route, with the President having withdrawn the original copy of the budget to “correct errors”.
At the seating of the Senate and House of Representatives, the budget of N6.08 Trillion, Nigeria’s largest budget till date was presented.
The budget benchmarks the price of crude oil at $38 even as the price of crude oil fell below $28 on the international market today.
Eyinaya Abaribe called the budget “dead on arrival” and urged the President to “return to the drawing board”.
Although the chunk of the budget is still reserved for recurrent expenditure, N1.08 Trillion is reserved for Capital expenditure, an improvement on last year’s budget.
Nevertheless the budget is to be heavily funded by borrowing and Suleiman Adokwe remarked on the borrowing proposal “which is almost 50 per cent of the expected revenue to fund the budget.”
The debate is expected to continue tomorrow.
